


Hidden Kingdom

by limey_limey



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: 12 years after the start of the show, Adora is adrift in a world that has grown up and left her behind, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bored Adora, Canon until 3.3 'Once upon a time in the Waste', F/F, can't put much more or the cat (wink) will be out of the bag.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:28:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 109,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28530699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limey_limey/pseuds/limey_limey
Summary: Adora was She-ra and She-ra was a weapon; where does that leave her in a world at peace?  12 years after joining the Rebellion, 10 after she last saw Catra and 7 since the Horde revolted and destroyed themselves peace fills Etheria.  The world has been healed and the people around her are building families while she simply feels lost.Something flying over the skies of the abandoned Crimson Waste calls the Princess Alliance back into action and Adora could not be more relieved to investigate.  Nothing could prepare her for what she finds there.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Angella/Micah (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra/OC (past), Kyle/Lonnie/Rogelio (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Netossa/Spinnerella (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 529
Kudos: 484





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to both the 'What if Catra stayed in the Crimson Waste' and 'What happened to the Magicats' head canons.  
> We are 12 years from the start of the show and everybody has accomplished a lot, some more than others.
> 
> This is planned and I will be writing weekly alongside Wild.

Adora was lost. Not physically; she was in her room in Brightmoon, her’s now for the last twelve years. That was part of the problem. She paced agitatedly around the airy space and out to the balcony, fingers drumming discordantly on her thigh, coming to a stop at the railing. Her hands rested on the balustrade and started to drum as she peered out over the landscape. All of the old scars left on the Whispering Woods had long since faded, grown over by the passing of time. It was the same with the people out there living their lives, a gradual process or repair and reconciliation with their past and present. She strained her eyes, looking beyond the woods and trying to catch a glimpse of a past she had left behind but could not let go of. The Fright Zone had once poisoned the sky on that horizon, turning blue to orange and angry grey; silhouetted towers reaching their gnarled fingers into the sky. Gone now. 

The problem was, peace was, well, peaceful. Days no longer filled with fighting and scrambling to stay alive. That had ended with the destruction of the Fright Zone from the most unexpected quarter. Seven years on and no-one was any the wiser as to what prompted the Horde to rise up against their leader and raise the Fright Zone to the ground. Nor did they know where the troops had disappeared to, for disappear they had down to a man. It was as though the Horde had never been. Shadow Weaver, still a ‘captive’ of Brightmoon, the only proof that it ever was. 

In the intervening years they had searched the wreckage, finding no evidence of bodies in the rubble. Whatever had happened it appeared as though the soldiers had somewhere to run to. The Black Garnet was also missing. Though the Princess Alliance had cast their net wide, hunted for survivors, wanting somebody to blame for all the ills of a war fought over generations, they had been left with nothing. Time had marched on, looking for lost enemies put aside in favour of rebuilding a world no longer fighting against itself. 

That had been the work of years, no quick fixes to put together what decades had torn asunder. The princesses had returned to their lands, bringing back their scattered peoples and channelling there magic into building a better world. There were still the abandoned places, inhospitable and abandoned; the Crimson Waste (which now lay as desolate and abandoned as the Fright Zone), Beast Island (though, on one of a very few missions to look at it’s viability for life, the discovery of King Micah had proved yet one more joy to add to their victory) but little else. Even that hell hole where she had been raised had been cleared and rebuilt with a thriving city carved out of shining steel and under the purview of Glimmer as Queen’s Regent to the place.

Now though, it had been years since there was anything left to do but govern and monitor. No more mountains to climb or monsters to slay and Adora didn’t have a place here. She had watched, filled with brimming joy, as her friends had grown up alongside her. First there had been Mermista, finally succumbing to Sea Hawk’s quirky charms and wedding in the first royal wedding in a generation. The whole of Etheria had celebrated and Adora had been there, resplendent as She-ra, stood with the happy couple at the isle. There was a joyful small boy that had been born not long after who was every bit his mother’s son.

Close on their heels had come Glimmer and Bow. She had had front row seats to the shy dance of their courtship as they moved from kids running to keep up with a war, to grown ups who worked side by side to rebuild. It had taken them longer than she had expected, both of them afraid about what would happen if they crossed a line. But the heart wants what it wants and soon she had been standing up with her friends, this time as just Adora, as they too exchanged vows of love. She was still waiting to hear the pitter patter of tiny sparkly feet along the hallways of Brightmoon though. She knew one day it would come.

Netossa and Spinerella had finally taken their leave and returned to their own home, settling in and taking in any number of war orphans, choosing to foster those who had no home rather than bringing new life into the world. Adora thought that, were she ever to find her ‘one’, she would like to do the same. Offer children like her a place to be happy and learn to be loved. It was a distance dream. Unlike her friends, Adora was single and lost. She was not the only single one, Perfuma had dedicated herself to rejuvenating the land all over the world which was still ongoing in the places that had been the most poisoned, leaving her little time to craft a family and Frosta was still so young, she was enjoying her freedom. Yet she felt like the only one who didn’t really have a place, She-ra was a weapon and those fighting days were gone. 

Adora had tried to find her puzzle piece, she was a woman nearing thirty and no blushing virgin, after all. She had dated a few of the palace guards, had a long affair with a noble woman from the Kingdom of Snows - distance and lack of effort had made it fizzle out. Truthfully that had happened with most of her relationships, she just couldn’t motivate herself to put the effort in. She was still looking for wrongs to right and people to help, dating and settling down didn’t fill that gaping void inside herself where She-ra sat and screamed for action.

Her blue eyes continued to stare at the nothing in the distance, one hand moving to touch the sword turned braced on her forearm, caressing it like an old friend. Wanting it to be an anchor.

But she was adrift.

_________________________ 

She had been in the library when she received the call on her tracker pad. Curled up into one of the big, plush chairs in an almost hidden alcove, a book of Etherian history on her lap, she was startled at the sudden beeping noise. Reading about the history of the world that she had grown up in but had little knowledge of, was one of the things that she enjoyed to pass the time. She had almost exhausted the stocks of Brightmoon, sometimes straying to Selineas and the Kingdom of Snows to raid their stacks. It had taken a long time but she had eventually acclimatised to the comforts of the castle, and now embraced it, snuggling into the soft depths with her legs drawn up beneath her and the book resting on the chair arm as she engrossed herself in thousands of years of history.

She had spent some time with Lance and George, looking for information on the First Ones, but found that just made her angry and frustrated. Sometimes the anger was directed at Shadow Weaver and Hordak for taking her away from her people, others it was at her people for how they had used Etheria. The revelations that Mara’s hologram and the ship itself had given to her still made her shudder, though none of it had come to pass. She had grown increasingly frustrated at Light Hope over the years, realising from the books in the hidden library that she had kept so much from her during her training at the beginning of her time as She-ra. She had stopped visiting the Crystal Castle many years before after reading one tome in particular.

Todays book was one that she had found in a dusty and forgotten part of Frosta’s library. The younger princess was always pleased to see her when she would take Swift Wind for a visit. The sight of the looming ice castle was always breathtaking and spending time among the ice princesses people was fascinating, a far cry from their warmer climate counterparts. The library there was based in a large warren of catacombs under the castle, able to be kept at a warmer temperature than the rest of the palace, meaning that the oldest of the books were preserved. Over the last decade she had worked her way through there. On the day that she picked up this book, she had felt drawn to go deeper into the more forgotten areas of the miles of tunnels. It had been dark and grimy, the books looking like they hadn’t been touched in generations.

She had run her fingers down the regimented spines, standing in the dark like soldiers awaiting commands, her hand coming away smeared with dusty neglect. It had been hard to make out the titles of the books in the dim light, but a few had caught her eye. One in particular, it’s gold binding managing to catch what little light there was drew her hand. It lay in front of her now, as she pawed over the information that she had been curious about since she was a child, laying bare the details of a dead civilisation that had been all but forgotten. Forgotten if not for one, young, angry girl all alone in the Fright Zone.

The page open in front of her showed a detailed diagram of some of the technology that they had built. For a society that had died off just after the First Ones departed, they had been incredibly advanced. Adora wondered if they had worked with her people or fought against their plunder of Etheria’s magic. It made her feel sick to the stomach to consider that, perhaps, her people were the reason for their extinction. 

She was so fixed on the information on the page that when the alarm of the tracker pad had sounded she had almost jumped out of her skin, sending the book tumbling to the ground and releasing a few pages across the floor, detached from their brittle spine. Scrambling to her feet she had carefully scooped the pages up, reverently finding where they belonged inside and slipping them in, a picture of a large eared child, looking out with wide eyes caught her attention and made her heart squeeze before she closed the book on it and held the tome to her chest. She would have to take another trip out to Bow’s dads to get help to repair the damage.

Hearing the shrill chirp for the second time as it rang out trough the empty library, she reached out to answer the call, the screen suddenly filled with Glimmer’s pinched, worried face. Adora felt a shover of anticipation crawl up her spine, this was clearly not a social call.

“Adora, thank goodness you picked up. We were worried you were off spelunking again or something.” Glimmer’s words came out in a rush, and as Adora looked more closely at the screen, she could make out other people moving in the background of what was clearly the former war room.

“Glimmer, what’s going on?” She started to move out of the library and down the hallway on the familiar rout to the war room.

“I’ve called the Alliance together, there’s been activity in the Waste.” Her words were curt, commanding in a way she had learned over the years.

“I’ll be right there.” The pad went dark and she marched to the meeting, on the other Sid of the castle.

By the time Adora pushed open the doors, sending a nod to each often guards that flanked it, everybody else was already seated at the table in their familiar positions. It warmed her to look at the head and see Angella flanked by Micah, something she could never have imagined as a teen when she had made the error of sitting in his chair during her very first briefing. Spinerella and Netossa sat as they always did, with chairs pulled close so that they were always touching, facing the royal couple. Arrayed around were the others, all looking much as they ever had. 

Perfuma had changed the least, still willowy and etherial, clothes more green than pink these days. Sea Hawk had grown a beard, equally as impressive as his moustache had always been and dressed more like a king than a pirate these days while Mermista had got more beautiful over the years, still wearing her teal coloured clothes, softened a little by motherhood. Frosta had surprised them all with a sudden growth spurt when she had been sixteen, going from Glimmer’s little shadow to a statuesque woman who towered over everyone save Angella, she grinned over at Adora showing that the spunky little girl was still tucked away inside the twenty-something. Adora sat and smiled over at Bow and Glimmer, the former with his own cropped beard and hair tied in a bun, the latter looking more like her mother with every passing year. Just shorter. Which she still griped about. Adora glanced down at her own being pants and white top, again feeling a pang at the notion that she was still exactly where she had been a decade ago. She was brought back to the moment when Angella’s cut glass voice began the meeting.

“Thank you all for leaving your kingdoms. We have received intelligence from the villages that neighbour the Crimson Waste of some troubling activity. Glimmer, if you would.”

Glimmer took the stage, bringing up the holographic display at the centre of the table, showing the edges of the Crimson Waste, the vantage point clearly from a village. The camera had been angled to look as deeply into the desert as possible, where usually it would monitor the border. These cameras had been one of the post war measures designed to stop the looting that they had anticipated at the start of peace from rampaging bands of ex-Horde. The danger had never materialised but the monitoring technology had stayed. On first glance it was just a static image of sand. They all knew there was more so watched attentively as seconds ticked by until, almost as though materialising from the air, a black figure began to move across the sky. It could have been mistaken for a bird at this distance if not for the fact that the wings never moved and that it left a feint trail in the air. It hovered and then dived towards the ground before pulling up and climbing fast. It stopped and pivoted back to the height as which it started, catching the sun as it moved, which gleamed off of what could only be metal, temporarily dazzling the camera, and the watchers. When the camera cleared of the flare, it was gone.

“As you can see, a flying machine has been seen hovering somewhere close to the centre of the waste. It is hard to tell how large it is from this angle, though our best guess is that it is at least as large as a skiff, if not larger. This is the only time it has been caught on camera but we have reports of similar sightings from four different villages that border the area.” She brought up a map of the area and highlighted the villages which had reported the sightings.

“Yeah, ok, but, like, haven’t they sent scouts in to take a look or whatever?” Mermista’s bored tones rolled through the room, voicing what they were all thinking.

“In fact they all have and there is nothing out there. They have come at it from different angles and saw no sign of life of any kind, certainly not a large, metal, flying machine.” Glimmer waited for more questions.

“So what are we doing?” Frosta had a brow cocked and her arms crossed over her chest.

Glimmer sat down again and reached over for Bow’s hand, interlacing their fingers, Adora felt her eyes drawn down to them as a frown tugged at her lips. She almost missed when Angella started to speak again, wrapped up in the melancholy that had recently been bringing her down.

“Clearly this needs to be further investigated. We have decided that sending the Princess Alliance is our best option here. What the locals can’t detect we can use main to explore.” Angella cut her eyes towards her daughter who had the grace to look bashful and colour with a pretty blush at her mothers smile. “Not to mention that if you’re all as antsy as my daughter, I am sure a little mission will air out all the cobwebs.” There was a ripple of laughter around the table and several nodded heads.

“We understand that you all have many more affairs to get in order before a mission than you did when you were younger, so we would ask that you be prepared in two days.” Micah’s voice still felt odd to hear at this table.

The meeting broke up soon after, with promises of rendezvousing at the Waste. Mermista and Sea Hawk would leave their son with Spinerella and Netossa, the older members of the Alliance electing to stay behind and act as communication relays and do any intelligence gathering as necessary. They had a brood of children to look after themselves. Soon they were all gone to organise their realms.

Adora ate a pleasant dinner with the royal family, long since adopted as another daughter of the house. They talked and traded nostalgic stories about the first time they went to the Crimson Waste. The Best Friend Squad, as Bow still insisted they call themselves, were able to share the more juicy details of their youthful adventures these days. No chance of Angella grounding them any more. The talk of going into a bar and meeting Huntara made Adora wonder what had ever happened to the Horde deserter, they had thought that she would become a resource but after they had recovered the First Ones ship she had disappeared, or so it seemed. 

That made her mind turn towards other people who had vanished over the years. It was a path she didn’t want to go down. She excused herself after dinner, not feeling sociable enough to hand out with the others and made her way back to her room. As she walked, she couldn’t stop herself from wondering what had happened to her old squad mates. Had Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio survived whatever had happened to the Fright Zone? She hoped so.

She reached her room and sat heavily on the edge of her bed, next to the book that she had dropped there earlier. He fingers itched as she tentatively opened the pages and pulled out the picture of a child that had caught her eye before. All the thoughts of times passed and people lost, she couldn’t help but think of the person lost that had meant the most to her.

Catra hadn’t been seen since she took her newly acquired gang and left Adora, standing alone, inside the old spaceship. She had untied her captive, thrown the sword at her feet in dismissal and walked away without a backward glance. The blond had expected to see her, taunting and full of bitterness, at the next clash with the Horde, and the next, and the next, but she never arrived. A year after that encounter and Adora had realised that Catra was gone. A deserter. And then the Horde was gone.

The child in the picture looked so much like Catra when she was a cub. Adora couldn’t help but trace her fingers over the shaggy mane and giant ears in the image and think about a wide eyed child siting on her bed and crying, pressed into a blue blanket.

She closed the book again, picture safely ensconced between the covers and traced a long finger across the words embossed there; ‘History of the Migicats’.


	2. Chapter 2

The Crimson Waste was beautiful in its emptiness and ferocity. The sand stretched for miles in all directions, shimmering under the sun’s heat as it bounced from grain to grain. The sparse cacti that popped up here and there looked like emeralds on a gold band. Gorse bushes also clung to the ridges and ravines. The red and yellows all around blending like a living fire as buzzards circled overhead, embers of the living earth.

Adora raised her hand to shield her eyes from the glare as she took it in. Was it always this beautiful? She thought back to when she was last here as a teen and realised that all she had seen then had been a difficult obstacle filled with harsh people that she had to overcome to achieve her goals. The war had raged and she had needed answers, blind and blinkered to anything else but proving her worthiness to carry the mantle of She-ra. Those intrusive thoughts still crawled under her skin sometimes, if she was still for too long, of whether she was worthy of still being the warrior princess - especially when there was little for her to do. 

Sometimes, as she grew older and her responsibilities less, it felt as though her Adora-self was a cage that She-ra stalked inside, pacing and growling to be set free. There would be an itch under her skin and she would want to rip the bracer off, throw the sword, just to be free of it. Then the guilt would kick in, she knew the she only had the opportunities she did because she had been She-ra when she joined the Rebellion, her story would have been much different if she had arrived without her; to resent her now seemed churlish. But she wondered if she would be happier without her? It was easier to blame her discontent on the supernatural entity, otherwise the problem was with her.

Shaking off the dark thoughts that had cast a shadow over the heated sand, she turned to look at her team. It was like old times, each of them ready to take on an adventure and uncover secrets - maybe fight a bad guy or two. Blue eyes watched as Glimmer stomped her way over to Frosta, grabbing the younger woman by the arm and pulling her down to eye level. It was comical to watch as Frosta had to stoop, which always made a frown crinkle Glimmer’s face. She had been devastated when she realised she would always be the short one.

“Are you honestly wearing that?” Her voice held an edge, as it often did when she fell into her role as defect big sister to the other woman. 

Frosta had arrived in a swirl of magic with one of the Mysticore mage’s that had been assigned to each realm to enable quick transfer of the princesses when necessary. They had vanished as soon as they had disappeared, leaving behind a young woman decked out in a bandeau top and short shorts, stylish hiking boots with a hint of fur on the edge to fit her brand and a large brimmed hat to finish the ensemble. She looked like she was heading on a vacation more than hunting for possible danger. She looked down at herself, then back up to meet Glimmers eyes, quirking a cheeky eyebrow.

“What? I’ve put on sunscreen.” Glimmer’s face began to harden with annoyance. “Don’t give me that look, how often do I get to go somewhere and get some sun? Let a girl live a little!”

“And what about when we encounter some dangerous menace? Can you fight in that?” Smirking now, folding her arms she thought that she had won this round.

“Then I’ll ice blast them and dazzle them with my feminine wiles!” Like Adora the others had been eavesdropping on the conversation and Mermista let out a short bark of laughter as the others all tried to hide their smiles from the speechless glitter-bomb.

“Fine!” Glimmer threw her hands up in surrender. “Have it your way, but when you get stabbed in the stomach don’t come crying to me.”

“You’ve seen Bow, right?” Frosta was trying hard not to laugh outright in Glimmers face when the truth of the matter finally dawned on her and she blushed and stomped over to stand with her husband, who’s mid-drift was noticeable bare. 

Adora felt warmth in her heart for these people who had been her family for so long. They were funny and ridiculous, loved and fought and bickered. There was a comfort in the familiar as they stood on the precipice of something new and potentially dangerous.

It felt just like old times.

_____________________ 

They split into teams to cover the desert from every angle. They broke up the area and Glimmer deposited each group at their starting village before materialising back with her group. Over the years Bow had become a technological marvel, working tirelessly to improve their communications technology, meaning that there was little chance of them losing signal on their tracker pads this time round. They would alert each other where to meet if they found anything.

Adora was working with Mermista, while Sea Hawk was with Perfuma and Frosta and Bow and Glimmer stayed in their usual duo. Adora had shot Mermista a curious glance when she had sidled up beside her when they were pairing up, only to receive an evil smirk in return as Mermista lifted her chin in the direction of the mismatched group of three. Adora had to hold back a snort when she realised that Mermista was messing with everyone over there.

It wasn’t long before Glimmer had deposited them in the furthest village in a blast of sparkles and then whisking herself away. They wasted no time walking out onto the hot sand, and making for the depths of the Waste. Adora looked over at Mermista who still wore a smirk on her usually impassive face. Shen noticed Adora’s glance and scowled.

“What?”

“You know somebody’s going to die in this desert, right?” If Perfuma didn’t blow up a cacti, Sea Hawk would grate on one often other women until they threw him through a dune.

“Oh, I know.” Mermista let the mischief back into her voice. “I do love Sea Hawk but he would have already started singing. Let Perfuma see if she can zen her way through that.”

“And Frosta?” Adora knew that the odd rivalry between the water and plant princesses was friendly but it had lasted for over a decade.

“I just thought she’d be the most likely to be driven up the wall.”

“You’re a mean one, 'Mista.” The couple laughed before falling into companionable silence as they kept their eyes peeled for any signs of life.

Time drifted by in silence until Mermista’s voice broke it, almost drawing Adora to a standstill. “So, like, why’d you break up with Zildari? I thought you two were good together.”

It was strange to hear Mermista ask her about her personal life. She was usually the least likely to share her emotions, the picture of stoicism. Except she wasn’t, Mermista wore her bored, sarcastic persona like armour and they all knew it though none of them dared ever bring it up. 

“We were, but with her wanting to stay close to her family and me wanting to stay in Brightmoon, it was never going to work. We had a good time together and then it was time for it to be over.” Even to her own ears Adora realised how detached that sound, as though they had a contract that ended and then they decided not to renew it.

“Adora, you were together for three years, wasn’t there anything worth holding on to?” Mermista might have always been exasperated with her husband and occasionally outraged, but they had always shared passion. It was hard for her to understand that Adora, or all people, wouldn’t feel that way about somebody she had been with for so long.

… Adora had met the trade envoy for the Kingdom of Snow’s Fur Guild, four years ago, she had been twenty-five and convinced by herself, and all of the people around her who were settling down, that it was time for her to look for ‘the one’. Adora wasn’t sure she even believed in the concept herself, she didn’t think she’d ever felt that rush that the others talked about. Well, maybe during the war, when she first joined the rebellion. But even that had fizzled out after a couple of years. And she wasn’t sure that was the feeling that they were talking about. So, she had been surprised when the dark haired woman had caught her eye.

Adora had walked into the meeting room, it was a luxurious space further down the hall than the war room. Strangers had been milling about at the table of food that had been pushed to one side, chatting and laughing. Only one of the chairs at the table had been filled, the woman sprawled out with the chair pushed back so that she could lean and cross her legs at the ankles in a posture of complete languid ease. The plate on the table in front of her was bare and she already looked utterly bored. 

Adora had felt a pull towards her at once, moving into the room, bypassing the food completely, to sit at the table beside the mystery woman. Closer she as able to take in the long, wild, chestnut hair that curled around her face and the slight hint of pointed ears that peeked out. Her eyes were large and so pale that the green almost looked yellow, the colour vibrant against her darkly tan skin. Adora was captivated by the woman and blushed scarlet when she realised that she was being appraised back with a quirked eyebrow and sardonic curve of the lips.

“Hi,” she said with an embarrassed wave of her hand. Where was the woman who managed to flirt shamelessly with the palace guards now? She felt like a teenager with a crush. She knew that feeling well.

“Hi, I’m Zildari. I’m going to take a shot in the dark and assume you’re She-ra?” Adora’s face, alongside her superhuman alter ego were well known all across Etheria.

“It’s Adora, actually. I’m much more glowy when I’m She-ra.” This was better, she was starting to feel far less flustered. She could talk to girls.

“I don’t know, looks like you’re glowing quite a lot right now.” The voice was low and teasing with a hint of bite and Adora felt her blush flare up even more. Maybe she couldn’t talk to girls?

She was saved from further embarrassing herself when Queen Angella walked in and the meeting came to order. People took seats all around her and she caught a saucy wink thrown her way from the brunette who had straightedge herself in her chair. Had she slid her chair a little closer to Adora’s?

As the meeting went on, with various representatives of the kingdoms discussing how best to organise trade and set a fair system of pricing, Adora felt eyes on her more and more. When she chanced a glance to her right, she was not surprised to see this enigmatic woman gazing at her blatantly. She smiled hoping that nobody else was looking at them, and got another wink in response.

During a recess, where more refreshments were brought in, Adora found herself leaning in a corner with a small plate of sandwiches watching the people. She kind of wished that Glimmer was here, but she was working in the former Fright Zone for a few weeks. She was distracted by thoughts of her friend, so when a hand snaked around her bicep she almost dropped her plate. She scrambled to gab it out of the air, failing to save the sandwiched but at least avoiding the plate shattering on the floor and becoming the centre of attention.

“I guess that’s those reflexes that saved us all during the war,” the voice was teasing and very close to her ear.

“Um…yeah…I guess?” 

“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” A finger moved to her chin, crossing so many boundaries that Adora found she didn’t mind, and turned her face to look at the other woman.

“Actually, I usually am.” And she usually was.

“Must be me then.” And it was, something about the chaotic and mischievous energy of this woman, as well as her looks, made Adora feel compelled to be near her.

“Must be.” She realised her blush was gone. She could flirt.

“You doing anything after this snoozfest ends?” Zildari didn’t lower her voice as she said it, gaining them some several disapproving looks that just made her let out a high pitched laugh. Adora shook her head, captivated. “I could use a tour guide, I’ve never been to Brightmoon before.”

It had been Zil’s first visit to Brightmoon but certainly not her last…

“We were never in love, Mermista. She’s beautiful and fun and neither of us made too many demands on each other. I liked being with her but not being with her hasn’t left me with a void or anything. Honestly I’m just as happy by myself.” She wasn’t, but telling any of her friends would lead to even more uncomfortable conversations.

“You know you can’t just keep screwing your way around the palace guards, right?” The accusation made her blush, everybody knew that she let off steam with the guards. Everybody knew it was just fun and none of the other women had ever tried to push for more than a one or two night stand. She might not be Etherian but she was only human.

“I’m not hurting anyone, we’re all adults.” Mermista was surprised by the edge to the blond’s voice and dropped it, silence falling between them again, not quite as comfortable this time.

That was the end of talking for a little while, a tension around them that as thick as the heat that enveloped their bodies. It was approaching noon, and they still had seen not sign of life other than the myriad of different cacti and the occasional small lizard skitter across their path. Something in the air felt wrong; Adora could feel a strange tingling under her skin, almost like a sunburn but she was lathered in sunscreen so she knew it couldn’t be that. She looked over at Mermista who also seemed to be shifting uncomfortably in her own skin. Maybe it was just the midday heat getting to them both.

“How far before we reach this bar?” Mermista had never been to the Waste before so, with her limited experience, Adora got to be the guide. 

“Honestly, I thought we would have hit it by now,” it was a relief that the water princess had broken the silence. She held up her tracker pad and looked at the map that was following their movements. They were far in now and still nothing. She watched Mermista give a little shiver, strange in this heat. “Do you feel it to?”

Mermista looked at her strangely for a moment before noticing the constant twitch of the skin on the blond’s forearms, revealed by her short sleeved t-shirt. “Yeah, it’s weird. Feels like tiny bugs crawling all over me.”

“That’s it exactly. It wasn’t like that last time, maybe it’s because we’ve been using our magic longer now?” What other reason could their be?

They continued to puzzle over the strange, unnerving feeling when finally they crested a dune and ahead of them, a few hundred metres away, stood the cantina. The two women came to a stop and just stared for a moment. It was still a striking sight, the giant animal bones stretched taught with canvas looking like skin. The colourful flags hanging listlessly on top, looked far more faded than Adora remembered. In fact, the longer she looked, the more she started to notice differences about it. 

Sand was piled up to one side, almost burying the back of the building in another dune. There seemed to be large tears in the canvas roof and some of the rib bones that gave it support had started to list precariously outwards, seeming to only be held upright by the toughness of the canvass.

“This it?” Mermista’s voice came from her side and was softer than she had expected, as though she was worried to break the stillness.

“Yeah.” Adora’s voice was equally soft. Something felt very wrong here. At her side Mermista started to step forward, only to be stopped by Adora’s outstretch arm and a shake of her head. “I think we should call the others. There’s something wrong here, I can feel it. We don’t want to be ambushed.”

Mermista agreed and they used the tracker pad to alert the others to their location. While they waited for Glimmer to retrieve the other group and bring them to their location, the pair sat down in the sand to wait.

“Hey, isn’t this where you got caught by that cat-girl during the war?” Mermista’s drawl was curious.

“Oh, Catra? Yeah… yeah… well not exactly here, it was deeper in.” She pointed vaguely off into the distance, uncomfortable at the sound of her childhood friend’s name.

“How come you didn’t end up back at the Horde then? She’d done it before, right?” Mermista hadn’t had a lot of interaction with the Force Captain during the war and when she had vanished their had been no opportunity for future confrontations.

“Well, she did kidnap Glimmer and Bow. I don’t know why she let me go. Glimmer and Bow managed to get away with the guide we had, but she caught me. Something happened out here and she’d managed to get a gang of mercenary goons and drugged me. When I woke up, I had no sword, so no She-ra, and I was bound and gagged to a pole and I could hear them celebrating in the other room of the ship we’d found.” When she thought back to that moment, she had been certain that she was a goner, that Catra was going to deliver her and the sword to Hordak, yet something else had happened. “Catra walked in a while later, she looked totally blank. She came up to me and crouched down, lifted my chin with the pommel of the sword and then just stared at me. I’d never seen her so focused or still before. I couldn’t look away. Then, suddenly, she threw the sword at my feet, cut the ties with her claws and walked out. She never said a word or looked back. I still don’t know why.” And she’d never had a chance to ask, as Catra had seemingly vanished. Her and Scorpia aspirating into the air and never appearing among the Horde forces again, and then the war was over. The war was over, and Adora never knew what became of her childhood friend.

“Weird.” Mermista had a gift for understatement.

The soft tinkling of bells caught their attention and they pulled themselves from their seated position as Glimmer and the four others appeared below them, between their vantage point and the dilapidated building. They made their way to join them and as a group they warily made their way to the entrance. Well, six of them moved warily while Sea Hawk looked positively overjoyed at the prospect of walking into a place that looked very much like one of his old, youthful port-side haunts. In fact, he was so excited that he drew in a breath, prepared to launch into a shanty, only to be stymied by Frosta’s hand clamped over his mouth and Perfuma glaring daggers at him. Thank god there were no roses nearby or Sea Hawk would be barraged with thorns. Clearly the two other women had had quite enough of his singing.

Adora took the lead, invoking the power of the sword, feeling She-ra burst through and consume her form, leaving her taller and stronger but still strangely empty. She pushed back the cloth that covered the entrance and walked into the dingy interior, light cast inside in shafts through the tears in the roof. The place was unnervingly silent, save for the buzzing of flies. There was not a soul to be seen. It looked like there hadn’t been for years. She called the others in, convinced that they were in no danger.

Glimmer was the first to walk in and her eyes widened in surprise and apprehension at the sight. Bow looked equally shocked. The others bustled in, almost knocking over the royal couple who had hesitated to move any further. 

“What happened here?” It was Glimmer’s voice that broke the stillness as they looked around the abandoned building. Sand covered every surface, warring with dust to see what could cover the most. Cups and plates lay broken on the floor behind the bar and several of the tables were on their sides. Yet, although the inside looked ravaged their was no food or drink anywhere, no sign that there had been a sudden exodus. It looked as though the vagabonds of the Waste had just disappeared.

“Maybe they just found a better spot?” Bow’s relentless optimism came out high pitched, belying the fact that he was clearly worried.

“Did anyone else see any signs of life?” The crawling feeling under Adora’s skin had increased tenfold when she transformed, she could barely stand it.

“Nothing,” reported back Perfuma. Glimmer muttered the same.

“Do we think this could be the Horde? They took the Fright Zone out and then moved out here, took the people and have made a secret base? That could be where the flying machine came from.” Frosta voiced what they had all been fearing since seeing the recording.

“I don’t…” She-ra was finding it hard to focus now. The magic seeped out of her and she was Adora again. “Can the rest of you feel that?”

“That buzzing feeling?” Perfuma was the first to speak as the rest of the princesses boded. Sea Hawk and Bow shared a confused look, not understanding what they were talking about.

“What buzzing?” Bow was a scientist, his curiosity piqued and he drew out his tracker pad to put in the data.

The group of women began to describe it, how it had become more intense as they had walked further into the dessert. Hiring the others articulate it made Adora more and more worried. What could possibly be out here, doing this? Was it what was responsible for the desertion of this place?

“Have we heard anything from Huntara?” Her voice cut over the rest, where they had all gathered by Bow at the bar.

“We haven’t heard from her in around five years, I think. I have tried since we arrived but there’s been nothing.” Bow’s response was muted.

“Lets eat and then get out of here, keep going. There’s nothing to find. I think we should stay together this time. I don’t like this, there’s definitely something going on.” Adora’s voice was commanding, as she had been taught all those decades ago at the Horde, broaching no room for question.

__________________

Afternoon was fast moving into evening and the group were no further along in their search. They walked in a bunch, talking and exchanging stories as they did, partially out of boredom but mostly out or a perverse sense of dread. If they didn’t find something soon, Bow would set out a locator beacon and Glimmer would have to take them back to one of the villages and they would be able to start again in the morning. Adora did not want to be out here once the day moon faded.

Frosta was getting antsy, still full of youthful energy that the rest of them seemed to have moved beyond and sick of the tension in the air, she spotted a fairly large slope leading away to the left, and broke out in a run, whooping as she went. She hit the crest of the dune and then slid down the sand, impressively keeping her feet as she did. Frosta felt the sand shifting under her feet and she moved downwards, it was almost like snow how it flowed and lowered her down. She was almost at the bottom when she noticed a strange grove just ahead. Sand seemed to be resting against nothing, and as her eyes widened she lost her footing, flailing as she flew the last few feet to smack into that same nothingness. Her startled squark brought the others running.

When they reached the snow princess, they found her propped up against nothing, cheek squished where it rested, almost as though she was pushed up against a window. Sea Hawk tried to move beyond her but bounced back off of the invisible barrier. After checking that Frosta was non the worse for wear, they fanned out into a line, prodding and probing at the barrier. It seemed to carry on and on. They kept moving, following it for hundreds of metres and still no end in sight.

They couldn’t be certain what it was, Glimmer’s magic just fizzled out when it reached it, not even illuminating the obstacle. Mermista used her canteen to try to funnel water at it, which only made it ricochet back and hit Perfuma square in the face, making her huff with agitation. Adora didn’t bother trying to hit it with the sword, whatever this was magic didn’t seem to bother it. What she was certain of was that this was the source of the terrible feeling as it was so strong now that she had to grit her teeth against it.

“All right, I’m going to say it. This is bad, right? Like, really bad. Like, ‘secret hidden military base in the desert plotting our destruction bad’,” Perfuma’s voice was reedy as it cut through what they were all thinking.

Without discussion they stepped away from the barrier, never taking their eyes off if it as though it would reach out to grab them. The question was, what now? This was clearly where the flying craft had come from, hidden away behind the invisible wall. If not a military base then what? Why would anybody need to hide it they meant no harm?

Bow patched in a call back to Brightmoon, Juliet’s face appearing on the screen and getting a few words out before the power was suddenly gone and the screen black. Somebody had pulled the plug on the device. Adora drew out her own only to find that too dead, as did Sea Hawk. Somebody knew they were here and didn’t want them to call in reinforcements.

“What’s that?” They all looked up from the dead tech to where Perfuma was pointing with a long, trembling finger.

The barrier had begun to shimmer and melt.

Six uniformed figures stepped out onto the desert sand, weapons raised.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one finally takes us to our Hidden Kingdom and some familiar faces make an appearance.

Mirrored lenses reflected back their shocked expressions to them as the six soldiers stood impassively, blocking them from approaching the barrier, faces obscured by scarves wrapped around nose and mouth to keep sand out. The six newcomers fanned out, silently taking up positions to surround the princesses, on three sides. Their weapons were trained on the ground, grasped tightly, revealing that they were ready to raise them at any moment. Nobody moved.

Adora felt Glimmer’s magic begin to bubble up from where she stood at her side. She locked eyes with her and subtly shook her head. It was clear to her that throwing all that magic at the barrier had down these soldiers out. Casting her eyes around the group she was relieved to see that the others had obviously seen her cue and remained impassive. The former Horde soldier turned her full attention back to assess their captors. 

She had been immediately struck by their appearance, they were like no soldiers she had seen before. Each figure was adorned with the same sand coloured uniform and helmet, mottled in various hues of yellow and orange to enable them to merge with the desert and surprise attack their foes. It was a far cry from the vibrant colours of the Alliance or the muted greys of the Horde. Some of the soldiers had their arms bared beneath their padded jerkins and shirts.

Adora quickly took an inventory of what species they may be facing off against. Two of their observers were obviously Lizard-kin, their thick tails giving them away as much as the scales on their arms gleaming in the sunlight. It was harder to determine with the others, a couple were human or human-like, while the other two were beast-men, one with sleek fur revealed on their arms, looking almost like velvet under the sun while the last had thick, bushy brown fur that sprouted, almost comically, out of the arm holes of his shirt and cascaded over brawny biceps. 

The stand-off between the two groups ended when one of the human figures stepped forward, pulling their mask down and removing their sunglasses hooking them into the v of their jerkin. The face looking appraisingly at them from beneath the brim of their helmet was a familiar one to Adora, who felt her breath catch at the sight.

“Lonnie?” Against protocol, Glimmer should have been the first to speak as Princess of Brightmoon, the words spilled out before she could catch them.

Lonnie briefly met her eyes, nodding minutely in acknowledgement, but quickly turning her whole focus on Glimmer. She broke the line of her squad and took three steps forward to ensure that all eyes were on her as she holstered her weapon and pulled a small, flat device from her trouser pocket. A few muted beeps could be heard as she ran her thumb over its surface. 

“Greetings, Princess Glimmer,” the formality of the words in Lonnie’s older, mellower, voice made Glimmer stand up more regally by instinct. Lonnie moved her eyes over the surface of the device in her hand, making Bow realise that it was some kind of miniature tracker pad and piquing his curiosity even more. “We welcome you to Oasis. We extend the offer of diplomatic relations. You may enter our city walls if you agree to abide by our rules and laws.” The words were staid and stilted, revealing that, though they may be rehearsed, they had rarely been used.

“We wish to speak directly to your Queen,” Glimmer’s voice carried power and authority that that she had developed over the last decade as her mother had entrusted her with the reclamation of the Former Fright Zone.

“I’m afraid that will be impossible.” Though her expression remained stoic, Adora could see mirth sparkling in her eyes.

“And why not? You say we are welcome, yet your leader will not deign to meet with us?” Glimmer drew herself up to her full height. “I would expect as much from Horde scum.” She spat the words as though they burned in her mouth.

Lonnie could no longer hold back her laughter, and the princesses noticed that the shoulders of some of the other soldiers were also shaking in obvious mirth. Glimmer was beginning to growl and Adora found herself watching the shorter woman’s hands to make sure that she wasn’t going to destroy their chance of getting through that barrier before they had a chance to find out more.  
Lonnie reached up and wiped tears out of her eye and finally spoke up, “Horde scum… haven’t heard that in a while.” The dark skinned woman trailed off into rueful laughter that left her breathless, before seeming to realise that she may have caused a political faux pa, Lonnie squared her jaw again. “You can’t meet out queen because we do not have one, nor a king. We decided that we wanted to be a society of equals. We vote for officials and are ruled by a council of five. You may meet representatives of the council.”

“That would be acceptable to us!” Frosta’s imperious voice rose and cut off whatever the leader of the group would say. Her years as a young princess regent and now the only queen among their group meant that when she wanted them to her words held a lot of weight.

“There is no magic allowed inside city walls and your weapons will need to be left in the hotel rooms that we will assign to you. We are the law and order of the city, not an army, and are responsible for upholding the law and delivering people who defy it to the law. We are not an army and this is not a military base, so please respect the people and families that you will find within.” As Lonnie spoke all of the others in her group holstered their weapons and pulled down their face coverings. Adora scanned the crowd but found nobody else that she recognised.

Adora walked a little way away from the desert dwellers and the others followed, knowing that it was time to strategies before they followed these people into the unknown. 

“We need to go along with their instructions, we don’t know what we’re walking into. Bow, you need to send a message to Brightmoon now, let them know that if they have not heard from us in 48 hours to send reinforcements. Better to be safe than sorry.” Bow was already tapping away at his pad that had come to life when Lonnie had used her own smaller one. “Let’s try to give all this the benefit of the doubt. We don’t want to pick a fight here, we’re vastly outnumbered if the Horde really is here.”

They talked back and forth for several minutes, planning quick strategies and arranging themselves into groups that would be able to have each others backs should danger arise. Meanwhile Lonnie and her squad waited patiently, some with their heads bowed towards each other as they talked to pass the time.

“So, are you coming?” Finally out of patience, Lonnie called out to the group that had drawn away. Adora called out an affirmative, and soon they were following Lonnie and the five strangers towards the invisible barrier. 

One of the Lizard-kin held up his hands and pressed his open palm, covered in a metallic glove, to the air and shimmer began to surround it. The shimmer soon turned to a strange rippling as though they were looking at the surface of a pond that had been turned on its side until, like water, the barrier crashed down and disappeared in one perfect rectangle ten feet high. Beyond, cutting through desert that they could still see on either side of the aperture, was a city of gleaming steel spires, clean white lines and plants. So many plants thriving in tehe heart of the desert.

They walked through and the barrier fell at once behind them. From this side it was simply a clear surface, lightly distorting the sand where they had just been. Captivated they follow their guides down the paved road and towards a pair of vehicles that were waiting not far ahead. Lonnie gathered her people together speaking a few words before sending them to continue monitoring the perimeter.

“I’ll take you to the council. They’re expecting us.” The group piled into one of the large transporters and drove towards the city that became more and more amazing the closer that they got. 

“How did you do all this in seven years?” Perfuma was captivated by the array of coloured grasses and flowers that lined the roads, impossible in the heart of this desert but here nonetheless.

“Entrapta, of course.”  
Of course. 

_____________________

Lonnie had stopped the transporter at the city limits, explaining that large vehicles like it were banned from the centre of the city to avoid accidents and pollution, though they were allowed in the suburbs (though the visiting princesses wasn’t entirely sure what a suburb was). Walking though the city, it was clear that it was different from anywhere they had ever been. The buildings shared more in common with the Fright Zone than any of the princesses’ domains and yet the place was bright and clean. The metallic buildings were full of windows and often decorated with vines climbing them, softening the edges. The streets were wide and paved, with small market stalls here and there for a splash of colour.

The place felt alive, people of every species imaginable going about their business. Parents with small children wheeled them around, heading to one of the parks that they saw tucked away here and their on their journey. Workers from the various buildings gathered to buy food from kiosks. There was not a Horde insignia in sight. People were dressed in their own unique styles, adding more colour to the metal, plants and sand. 

Lonnie was quiet, answering questions when she was asked, but mostly happy to let them take the place in rather than giving away too much, letting them draw their own conclusions. This was her home and she was proud of what they had achieved as a community in so little time. So many broken people coming together to make something whole and beautiful. It wasn’t perfect, ex-mercenaries, ne’er-do-wells and soldier’s were not easy people, but it had turned out that so many of them just wanted a new life that even the worst of them had played along. This part of Oasis, Central as they called it, was the most highly organised and sterile. The further you moved from the centre the more organic it began to feel, Lonnie’s own home being in a much more relaxed area close to one of the schools. She was sure that somebody would give the snooty princesses a real tour if this meeting went well.

Soon she was leading them through the doors of one of the more imposing buildings that dominated Central. The doors parted with a gentle whoosh as they entered into a bright and airy reception. Lonnie approached the young man behind the counter and he pointed for them to go directly through another set of looming doors to his right, a bright smile on his face and wishing them a ‘merry day’ as they passed him.

“Where is he from?” Mermista was the one to ask, her brows drawn as she tried to think how old he may be.

“I think he was one of the Horde cadets, but he would only have been 12 or 13 when everything happened. He turned 20 a few weeks ago, there was a big celebration.” Lonnie didn’t elaborate on why she, a guard would be partying with a twenty-something administrator.

Lonnie ushered them through the doors, but did not join them this time. She looked towards the front of the room and bowed her head in respect, before turning and leaving them to their meeting with the council. Her shift was not yet over and she had squad to rejoin, perhaps after a small detour to get some lunch.

Looking down at the seven members of the Princess Alliance from a raised platform were five men and women. Two faces were instantly familiar. Huntara scowled down at them, looking exactly as Adora remembered, even down to her clothing, though perhaps there was a little less definition to her arm muscles and a few more creases on her face to show the passing of years. Beside her sat Scorpia, who beamed at them and clacked her claws together with glee. Huntara caste her a reproving look which deterred her not one bit. 

At the sight of Scorpia the one time Force Captain looked around the room for Catra, unaccountably disappointed to see no sign of the feline. Instead, the members of the council were rounded out by a scrawny male canid, a human man who was sweaty and balding and at the very end of the table was a lizard-kin of a type none of them had seen before, skin smooth and features softly androgynous. 

“Welcome to Oasis. The elected council are pleased to receive you. We had hoped that this meeting would come a few years down the road when we approached you, but you seem to have stumbled upon us.” The words came from the balding man, sweet and syrupy as honey but with a wheedling tone that revealed that he was no fool.

“How did you ‘stumble upon us’?” Huntara’s voice was loud and hard and brokered no dissembling.

“There was a sighting of a flying machine out here and we were investigating it when we hit your wall.” Glimmer saw no reason to lie.

“Entrapta,” the word was soft and exasperated. “This seems like rather a small mission for you all to be on. Do you expect us to believe that you just ‘stumbled’ on the shield?” Huntara was still an intimidating woman.

“What could we gain from lying to you?” Glimmer’s voice was just as firm.

“Taking out the last of the Horde.” This came from further up the table.

“If you are what Lonnie claimed, then there isn’t a need for that.” Glimmer cocked her hip and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting.

“We do not want another war, we are tired of war. If you agree to our terms you may stay here for as long as you need to decide either to make a treaty with us or vow to leave us in peace and never return.” This time it was the canid who spoke. “We will provide you accommodation in the hotel in Central and you will be shown all we have to offer. You are not prisoners, we will treat you as envoys. Please respect our rules against carrying weapons and absolute prohibition on the use of magic inside the city shield.”

This was not what they had been expecting. Quite what they had been expecting, Adora was unsure, but it surely wasn’t this gruff but welcoming approach from these people. They would have to make a plan about who would be looking for what information in this place to uncover secrets that this seeming civility may cover.

“I’ll give you a little tour this afternoon, I can talk you through all the most important developments in Oasis.” Scorpia’s jolly voice was at least something familiar to all of the visitors, Sea Hawk smiled remembering his own snowy adventure with the big scorpion.  
___________________

Adora found herself alone in a sparsely decorated room at the inn that they had been taken to. No, not an inn, they had called it something else and truthfully the word that created visions of quaint villages was wrong for this place. Hotel, Lonnie had called it as they’d travelled together earlier. The word felt at once more fitting and alien. She looked around at the plain white walls, one holding a large painting of what she thought was supposed to be a bright blue dragon, a large bed dominating the space and a cupboard to the side of a desk. There was no clutter and nothing out of place. Everything in the room was clean and new but functional; only enough pillows for you to sleep on, running water only in the attached bathroom with its sharp chrome and no frills.

Whatever this city was, it felt to her as though this building, and these rooms, were what they were trying to achieve. Something clean and new with a purpose in the heart of the rugged and dirty desert. Drawing together the best of what the Horde had on offer and infusing it with the life and vitality of the rugged people of the waste and the civilized sensibilities of the displaced villagers who had also help to found the place. Adora felt drawn to it, the almost bare room calling out to some part of her that was still a child running around metal corridors hand in hand with her best friend, giggling in spite of the dark surrounding them.

She could breath for the first time in what felt like too long. This secret place had been made by people like her, for people like all of them.

Knocking on the door startled her out of the cloud of thoughts that were whirling around her head. This was not the time to be getting lost in thoughts of the past and who she would have been if not for all the things she had done. They still didn’t know if this place was to be trusted as Glimmer had rightly pointed out in her Glimmer way, though the part of her that was She-ra lay sleeping, signalling that there was nothing to fear around them, yet.

“Coming,” Adora shucked her top coat and rolled up her sleeve, remembering that she had come in to do just that before she became distracted by the decor. 

Walking to the door, she took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and pulled open the door. She had been expecting to see one of the Alliance, gathering her for the tour that they were about to be taken on. She was stunned, therefore, to see Lonnie standing in front of her, no longer wearing her uniform and smiling uncertainly at her from a face ten years removed from the one she remembered.

“Lonnie?” She didn’t mean for it to come to so uncertainly, they had grown up as friends and though they had fought there had never been the bad blood between them that there had been with Ca… she didn’t let herself finish that thought. “Hi?” She hoped that Lonnie couldn’t hear the question in her voice.

“Hi Adora,” it was reassuring that Lonnie sounded as uncertain as she was.

Silence fell between them as they each studied the other, stood in the open doorway. Lonnie was a little taller than she remembered, all grown up now as was she. The dark skinned girl…Adora corrected her thoughts, none of them were girls any more, the other woman had grown her hair down to the small of her back and now it coiled in thick braids augmented with gold cuffs down their length that caught the light and gleamed like jewels. He eyes were warmer than she ever remembered, Lonnie had always been so angry at the world and held it back, channelling it into getting the job done and protecting Rogelio and Kyle, but that was gone now. The thing that was the most startling about her appearance were the loose flow pants and shirt she wore in muted greens which picked out the colour in her eyes. Her feet showed though sandals and one of her shoulders was bared by the large neck of her shirt which was tied together with pretty laces in a vibrant red. It was soft and showed a confidence and vulnerability in herself that they could never have in the Horde.

“I’ve never seen you in civilian clothes before.” It was blurted out thoughtlessly. 

“Yeah, not much rec time back then,” a little chuckle followed her words. “Not sure I can say the same to you though, ‘Dora. Still looking kinda uniformy there.” She gestured at the blond’s clothes and Adora found herself self-consciously pull at the hem of her light coloured t-shirt. Sure, it was no longer the white long sleeve and red jacket of the war but it was awfully similar. The others often ribbed her about it but she needed something that she could always rely on and refused to feel bad about it.

“What can I say, I found my style, why change.” The two women laughed, like strangers meeting for the first time but a tension was broken.

“Thought I would come and get you for the tour, Scorpia asked me if I’d like to join you guys as I’m off duty now. I thought it was probably a good idea not to just get her point of view, she’s still so upbeat I’m not sure your queen would believe she wasn’t just sugar coating everything.” That was a good point, if anyone was likely to give you the unvarnished truth it was Lonnie.

“That’s actually a really good idea,” Lonnie quirked her eyebrow and smirked. “God that sounded so much more patronising than it was meant to!”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s not the first time you’ve talked to me like that.” Adora felt worse at those words though she was sure they weren’t supposed to be a barb. “Let’s meet your friends and get this show on the road.”

Lonnie led the way down the long hallway littered with doors to left and right and down a set of stairs. As they hit the foyer of the building she saw that the rest of the group were already there, all looking much as they had that morning, except Frosta. Somehow the younger woman had managed to acquire herself a pair of calf length silk-type pants and a blouse similar to Lonnie’s. Adora would have to ask her about that on their walk. Scorpia hovered close to the group but was obviously uncomfortable to be with them alone, although as they drew closer she notice that Perfuma was trying to engage the Scorpioni in conversation in her gently insistent way.

“Hey, Scorp, got our straggler. Let’s get this show on the road.” Lonnie’s words were prompt enough to get Scorpia to take charge and lead the way out of the building.

“So I thought we would just walk around and I’ll point out the important places and you can ask me about anything that catches your eye. There are a lot of really interesting stores and places to see and that way you can talk to people we bump into if you fancy it.” Adora noticed that Scorpia’s words were a little softer than they used to be, she hadn’t been close to the other woman but she, like Lonnie, seemed a lot more relaxed.

There was a mumble of assent from the group as they followed, eyes roaming the streets around them. Glimmer’s eyes remained cold and flinty, even while Bow tried to draw her attention to some cute shop here or bakery there. She was not sold and it was clear that she still believed that this was all some extremely elaborate trick designed to take them down. Adora thought she was wrong, but more than once Glimmer’s sceptical nature had kept them all safe so she would let her keep hold of that paranoia so long as she didn’t alienate their hosts.

Hours passed in easily, Frosta and Perfuma doing the lion’s share of the talking, asking about the various buildings that they passed. Scorpia had walked them passed the ravine that used to house the majority of the inhabitants of the Crimson Waste. Now the vertical walls were covered in flowering cacti and other climbing green plants and the caves that had housed people seemed to be teaming with wildlife, many of the people having moved up to the surface. It really was incredible what Entrapta had managed to do to the desert in a scant few years, each time Adora looked at Bow she could see him jotting down what were undoubtedly questions for the tech princess.

“So, we only have two schools at the moment, although there are plans to build more on the other side of the city. It was one of the first things that we did, after the hospital.” Scorpia was beaming as she talked about the work that had been done to make this place a home. She was still wearing her sand coloured uniform but like Lonnie there was something much softer about how she carried herself now. 

“Why schools before houses?” Perfuma had been asking a lot of questions, keeping their tour guide disarmed and chatty.

“It’s what the Horde was. It was those of us who grew up there and became the soldier’s and the children that would grow up and repack us. I never knew how many children there were in the Fright Zone. We were kept in our units and grew up together and there was never a reason to go to the lower years of the creche. When we brought it all down their were hundred of children, most of them under twelve and all they knew was war. It was important that we started off by trying to give them the normal life they deserved.” It was all said with a deep sorrow in her voice for all the lost innocence.

The princesses looked among themselves and then looked at Lonnie and Adora standing beside each other, as though realising for the first time that they would have been those children. Adora felt uncomfortable, though whether because she liked that they had forgotten her origins in the moment, or because they had been reminded she wasn’t sure.

“So who looked after all those kids?” Frosta remembered being a young child without parents and too many responsibilities and the words burst out of her almost like an accusation.

“Oh, oh, we didn’t give them their own houses and say ‘here you go’ or anything. There were a lot of ex-Horde adults too. Some people went and started their own homes but others stayed with the children. We have five or six big orphanages - I should take you to one next - where we live with the children. I’ll take you to the one me and… I’ll take you to the one I live in.” She was smiling as she spoke and it was possibly the softest expression that any of them had ever seen.

“So you live in an orphanage. What about her?” Glimmer asked as though she expected Lonnie to reveal that she ate the children.

“Might want to watch that tone there, Your Majesty.” Lonnie’s words were getting more clipped, more like Adora remembered, and it was not a good sign. “My husbands and I have a very nice home over the bar that they run.”

“So you don’t help with the orphans?” Glimmer had turned to look at the taller woman with her arms crossed over her chest and her mouth pursed in a familiar pose that did not bode well. Bow reached out a hand and rested it at the small of her back, hoping to stop her saying something that would really offend because anything that happened now would be on them as Scorpia and Lonnie had been nothing but cordial.

“Actually, we adopted three children from one of the orphanages as soon as we thought that we were in a position to be able to take care of them, you know, after we had to learn to look after ourselves like normal people who weren’t just so much cannon fodder.” Her eyes were sharp, piercing through Glimmer, and Adora shuddered, glad that they were not locked on her. “How many war orphans have you taken in to your giant castle, Your Majesty?” And the title had never seemed so much like an insult as it did right now.

Glimmer was seething with anger and the tell-tale spark of magic was starting to wrap around her hands. Both women were staring at each other, neither backing down, and Adora felt She-ra wake inside her and the bracer around her wrist begin to itch at the impending confrontation. Mermista and Perfuma were looking between the two silent would be combatants, clearly torn about what they should do, though Frosta had moved to Glimmers side with no such qualms.

Before anyone could speak or make a move a small blur of fabric and fur sprinted around a corner, pursued by a larger group of children who were whooping and laughing. The cacophony of sound broke the tension as the gaggle of children thundered towards them. The child in the lead dodged to the side as one of the others got too close, and built speed as they headed towards the group of princess and Lonnie.

Glimmers hands were still sparking with magic when the same child collided with her at full speed, taking themselves and the Queen of Bright Moon down in a pile of limbs on the ground. Where there had been joyful noise there was now silence as they other half a dozen children stopped stick still, eyes wide, as they saw what had happened.

“Digs! Digs, dude! Get up.” The tallest kid in the group, a shirtless orange lizard-kin hissed loudly in common tongue.

“Geez, ma’am I am sorry.” The young ball of fur scrambled off of the woman and then used all their strength to help Glimmer to her feet.

Dazedly she looked down at the child who had knocked her off of her feet. He was probably around ten years old, all gangly limbs and slender almost to the point of skinny. His skin was covered in white fur with brown and orange patches where it wasn’t covered by a brightly coloured red t-shirt and black shorts. His clawed feet were bare and he bounced nervously on them under the scrutiny of so many grown-ups and his large ears were almost lost in his wild mane of hair as they pinned to his head.

Before Glimmer could gather her thoughts enough to speak, Lonnie stepped forward and rested her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Digby,” She looked up from his bowed head and caught the eye of the leader of the group and the little girl that was clearly trying to hide behind his larger bulk. “Fernando and Ellia you need to come here. The rest of you need to go back to school, because I know for a fact it doesn’t get out for another thirty minutes. Now skedaddle!” There were a chorus of muted ‘yes ma’ams’ as the children fled towards the large building they had been approaching. They had got off lightly, it seemed, as Lonnie caste a disappointed eye on the three children of similar ages who now all stood in front of her. The princesses stood back and watched, wondering what they were about to see.

“Would you three like to tell me why you are out here, running around like a pack of dogs when you should be, if I’m not mistaken, in math class right now?” 

“It’s my fault Mom,” the lizard boy, Fernando, hissed shame faced. “Our teacher was sick today and I didn’t think anyone would notice.”

“So you organised the seven of you to run out?” He nodded dejectedly.

“Ellia, you have anything to add? Like why you where all chasing your little brother.” Lonnie tilted the girl’s chin up so she could look her in the eye.

“We were just playing Mommy, honest. Digs thought that we could catch him if we worked as a team and took a turn in the lead.” Ellia’s big brown eyes were starting to place with tears and Lonnie reached up to cup her cheek reassuringly.

“What about you Digby?” Her free hand ran through his bushy hair while his tail wound around Fernando’s wrist, linking the four of them together in a loop. 

“That’s true, Mommy. I’m sorry I hurt the lady,” he turned from his family and looked at Glimmer. “I am really sorry that I knocked you down.” He smiled widely at her showing his small fangs and some deep dimples.

“That’s ok, no harm done.” Glimmer looked bemused by everything as she spoke, all the vinegar gone from her words.

“Well, you’re lucky nobody got hurt today and I don’t mean from knocking people over. If you’re not in school and anything happens to you, how will anyone know?” Now there were tears of shame in all the children’s eyes at Lonnie’s soft words. “Scorpia, can you finish the tour without me? I think I need to take these three home and we all need to sit down with their fathers.”

“Sure Lonnie, tell the boys I’ll be at the bar later.”

Scorpia waved as Lonnie led her brood away, her arm thrown around the lizard boys shoulder while her other hand was held by the little girl who in turn held her younger brothers. 

Through it all Adora had not been able to tear her eyes away from the little boy who had started the kerfuffle.

“Scorpia,” her voice was low but the quiet among the group let it be heard. “Was that a magicat?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oasis is Entrapta's baby. Think sci-fi Vegas but less gambling.
> 
> So here there be baby magicat's...


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tours, bars and revelations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you ready for....
> 
> Sexy Kyle? I want you to think Umbrella Academy season 2 Klaus but with LOTs of blond hair.
> 
> I was meant to be writing the update for Wild but 8k of this spilled out instead...whoops.

Gathered around Glimmer and Bow’s room as the sun faded outside their window, the group of seven filled the room with chatter. Each of them was trying to make sense of this place that they had discovered. Only Adora was quiet and still, sat on the windowsill, back against the frame as she looked out at the city that was kissed by the amber light of the setting sun, giving it a jewel-like quality. She noticed, as she stared, a building situated far away from the rest of the city, sitting atop a stony ridge. It reached up like a spire silhouetted against the sky, with lights already blazing on its surface, revealing dozens of windows. She let herself ponder what it might be before her mind went back to the magicat boy who called Lonnie ‘mommy’.

In nearly thirty years Adora had only ever seen one magicat; they’d all only seen one magicat. When they were children she and Catra would often sneak to their quiet places and wonder where they came from. Back then, Adora had assumed that she was a normal Etherian and had imagined that somewhere out in the world there were two people who had given her to the Horde to look after because they knew that she would help to protect the world. She built them up in her head as people who had made a noble sacrifice. Catra, being the most alien looking creature living in the Fright Zone, had spun wild stories about crash landing from one of the moons, or being made by Hordak in his lab. She had always been joking, but now that Adora looked back she could remember the other girl’s voice trembling under the laughter, eyes pained. Neither had ever had an answer to where Catra had come from. Ironic now, that it turned out to be Adora who was the stranger to the planet. 

Briefly, Adora had wondered if that little boy was her childhood friend’s. That perhaps Catra had a child, and that Lonnie had adopted it. The trouble was, that raised the nagging question that had been eating at the back of the blond’s mind since they first saw Lonnie and then Scorpia; where was Catra? If that child was her’s, what did it mean that she would not raise him herself? Something squeezed inside her chest at the implications of what that could mean. She couldn’t imagine having the chance to have a child and not hold it close, after the childhood they had.

Adora was so lost in a tsunami morose contemplation that she missed someone calling her name. When a hand landed on her shoulder she spun, hands coming up defensively to strike out at an assailant. It too a moment before she realised that her fits was raised close to a wide eyed Perfuma’s face. Adora lowered her hand and smiled apologetically at her friend, whose eyes shone with concern as she reached for the blond’s clenched fist, smoothing her thumb over it until the tense woman relaxed and let herself be pulled over to join the rest of the group finding a place to perch on a pillow thrown from the bed to the floor.

“Sorry guys, I was miles away. Could you repeat that?” Adora hoped that she hadn’t missed too much. Looking around at the others, casually sprawled on the bed or cross legged on the floor, they all looked fairly relaxed so obviously things weren’t too bad.

“Fine!” Glimmer growled out the words as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Ok, so everyone looked relaxed except glimmer, who sat ram rod straight on the small chair that finished the room.  
“We all agree that this place looks fantastic. I am not arguing with that. But, doesn’t it seem a little suspicious to the rest of you that in less than a decade they have taken this place to barren desert to this? How, if not for magic? Not to mention that the Fright Zone obviously collapsed itself to come and hide here. How can we be sure they aren’t just regrouping?” It might be mostly paranoia talking but Glimmer did have some good points.

“I was saying, like, we need to stay for a while to see if this is just a facade or whatever.” Mermista was laying with her head in Sea Hawk’s lap as she drawled out the good sense that she could always been relied on to supply.

“And I was saying, that we can’t all just abandon our kingdoms to stay in a place that may actually be a trap.” Glimmer eyeballed the other princess who just rolled her eyes in response.

“I think Mermista has a point, Glim. It’s not like we haven’t been away from home before and this time we’re not at war. We all left people we trust in charge and the Tracker Pads are working now so we can check in.” Frosta didn’t often really disagree with Glimmer, but she had become more levelled headed over the years.

“What about you, Adora? You can’t tell me that you’re not waiting for there other shoe to drop. Where’s Catra? You’re telling me that the girl who almost took down Brightmoon: who kidnapped me and Bow: who was going to drag you back to the Fright Zone in chains?” How strange that Glimmers mind was on the same person as her own, just for very different reasons.

“Honestly, I am surprised she isn’t on the council instead of Scorpia. You’re right, it is odd, but I really don’t think that this is some elaborate trap for us. I think it seems real. Lonnie is so different, and you saw the children everywhere.” Happy children running wild and free, admonished by parents in the softy firm way that spoke of care and not disgust. “If this is a vote then I vote we stay.”

Assent filled the room as the others agreed with her and Glimmer’s eyes grew more and more stormy. It wasn’t unusual for her, still standing in the shadow of her parents with no kingdom to run. With the war over, even rebuilding a whole new kingdom didn’t satiate her need to lead. When that project was finished, who knew where she would channel her frustration. 

“Fine. Just keep your guard up, we need to gather all the information we can.”

The meeting broke up and the group left Glimmer and Bow to return to their own rooms. Thankfully they all had rooms on the same level. Adora was at the furthest end of the hallway, each of the other princesses disappearing into their own rooms until she was walking the last few feet alone. She lifted the flat key to the door and heard the tinny little beep tell her that it was unlocked and walked back into the sparse and comforting place.

Adora peeled her pants and shirt off and wandered to the bathroom where there was a wrapped toothbrush and paste waiting on the sink. Splashing water on her face, she tore open the brush and set about cleaning her teeth. The taste in her mouth was oddly metallic but not unpleasant. She spat, dried her face and wandered over to the bed, snapping off the lights as she went before she threw herself onto the bed and curled up in the crisp, clean linen.

As her eyes grew heavy, the events of the day catching up to her, she thought of Lonnie and her three chosen children. 

_____________________

It was decided, through a rather terse conversation via their tracker pads the next morning, that they would meet with the council again the following day. This would give them another day to explore the place and get a feel for it. How much longer than that they would stay was still up for debate. Bow had been the one to contact Scorpia, who had given him her details the previous day, and she was to meet them in the restaurant of the hotel after breakfast. He voice over the tracker pad had been joyous at the thought that they would see more of this place that she had helped to build.

Breakfast was a less charged affair than the evening before had been. Glimmer seemed to have decided to give the place a chance and was sitting casually drinking a cup of herbal tea while chatting about the food with Perfuma and Sea Hawk. Adora found herself with Frosta this morning, the younger woman dressed in some of the clothing that had been provided to them the previous day when they arrived at their rooms. The simple blue peasant shirt and blousy pants were similar in style to what she wore in the Kingdom of Snows but light weight, as though they had been specifically selected for her. In fact, as Adora looked around, she realised that was true of the clothes all of the group were wearing. Glimmer was robed in a floaty purple tunic and leggings, Bow’s clothes matching but, importantly, a crop top revealing his impressive abs. Mermista a Sea Hawk were in complimentary aqua, his a loose shirt and knee length shorts and hers a shift dress. If not for the changed colour of Perfuma’s dress, it would have been hard to tell the difference, so similar was it to her usual fare, but rather than pink or green her dress was a sunshine yellow.

Looking down at her own attire, a plain white t-shirt and kaki shorts, she wondered at the care and generosity they were being shown by this young kingdom. Adora wasn’t sure kingdom fit here, they didn’t have a monarch, after all, but city didn’t seem a big enough word to describe the busy centre and the sprawling homes she had seen in the distance from the window last night, or that spire on the distant horizon. How they had managed to achieve all this, and turn two groups of outcast and neglected people in a thriving home for them all was still something that they didn’t have an answer for, and all of them were intrigued. 

In the same time that it had taken these displaced people to build a home, Glimmer had been building a new city on the site of the old Fright Zone. Buildings had needed to be torn down and the poisoned land healed. Perfuma and Mermista had worked tirelessly alongside the heir to Brightmoon to cleanse the earth and encourage plants to grow. It had taken three years before they could even think to start allowing people to begin building homes. They had reclaimed the ruins of the former Scorpion Kingdom and made them the centre of power for the area. Even with all that hard work, the place was still a work in progress and still looked like little more than a typical village. Nothing like this. If Oasis was all it seemed, perhaps they could lend their expertise to the outside world, as long as Glimmer could staunch her pride.

They talked back and forth, making a strategy for how they would use the day. With a meeting with the council looming the next day, they needed to gather as much information about the place as they could in a day. That would mean convincing Scorpia that they should be allowed to go on their own recognisance rather than staying as a large group with her. Somebody would have to stay with the ex-Force Captain, and surprisingly it was Perfuma who volunteered. During the war, the two had never really interacted but the flower princess was a calm personality who seemed like she would have a nice day out with the always pleasant, even when you were fighting her, council member.

Scorpia breezed in with a booming welcome and drew an empty chair from a nearby table after asking the patrons there for permission. It had surprised the outsiders that the hotel had other guests, assuming that they would be alone in the building. She slid the chair closer to the group and sit down so that she wasn’t looming over them. It was a small change in her physicality, but another that shows dhow the passing of years had made her more perceptive of how other people would react to her.

“So, I hear that you will be meeting the council again tomorrow, I’m here to show you a little more of our city and answer your questions. What would you like to see first?” Her expression was soft as her dark eyes moved over their faces.

“Actually Scorpia, we would really like to be able to go out and look around by herself.” A look of consternation passed the white haired woman’s face as Perfuma took the lead.

“Well, I guess that would be fine, but what if you have questions?” She raised a large claw and tapped it to her dark lips thoughtfully.

“We thought of that, and Sea Hawk and I will come with you and if the others have any questions about where they are then they can just call us and speak to you.” They could see the tall woman thinking through this plan. She pulled out one of the small data pads and tapped it with her claw in a strange, disjointed pattern, receiving a beep in response and running her eyes over the lit up screen.

“That is acceptable. Huntara asked me to remind you that you cannot use magic here and that there are no weapons allowed.” She looked pointedly at Bow and Adora. Adora held up her arm to show that her bracer was absent while Bow nodded in acceptance. 

They all rose from the table and set out for their day of exploration.

Mermista and Adora decided to pair up, while First latched herself onto Glimmer, meaning that Bow would be spending his day with Sea Hawk, Perfuma and Scorpia. He still had a boy crush on the sea captain and was happy to get to spend the day with him as well as with Scorpia who would be able to answer all of his questions.

Scorpia took her group back to the school that she had toured them past the day before, this time taking them in and allowing them to talk with some of the children and look at how they were taught. The day continued in the same vein with them walking around the hospital, Bow's eyes lighting up as he saw some of the intricate machinery that he had seen nowhere else. Perfuma asked lots of questions about the role of plants and herbs in medicine in here and Sea Hawk regaled some patients with a song.

The most illuminating part of the tour for the guided group was when Scorpia led them to the orphanage that she lived in. She explained that it was one of five across the city. None of the group of three had been sure what to expect from the building. Having heard Adora’s tales of being brought up as an infant in the Horde’s ‘creche’ they were expecting a utilitarian building lacking warmth. What they saw as they turned the corner was the antithesis of their expectations.

The building was four stories high and completely square, but that was where the utilitarian feeling ended. The outside, rather than being the shiny metal of the rest of Capital, was painted in a rainbow of bright colours and peppered with pictures clearly painted by the children who lived there. Sitting in front was a playground full of play equipment, they noticed that a lot of it was for climbing and some of it seemed terrifying tall. Walking through the toys, feet feeling springy as they walked across the ground, Bow remarked on the lack of children and Scorpia laughed a little but said nothing more as she pushed open the door and led them inside. 

Walking through the doors they expected to be bombard by children but the place was eerily quiet. They found themselves in a large room with a very high ceiling and more climbing equipment against the walls, in fact one wall seemed to have been turned into a climbing wall leading to the next level. Bow and Sea Hawk looked at it with barely concealed excitement, their inner children desperate to climb it. Perfuma felt no such compunction, but was taken with the plethora of comfy looking sofas and cushions that were scattered around the room and clearly well used. There were baskets of toys and bookcases dotted around. Hanging down from the balcony rail of the upper walls was a curtain of vines that cascaded down and leant more colour to the area.

“So, fair lady, where are all these orphans?” Sea Hawk, now a father, was keen to see that the children were treated well.

“Oh, you really meant that outside?” Scorpia looked genuinely apologetic. “Sorry, I thought you were teasing. They’re all at school right now, of course. We want them all to have the opportunity to try everything and make their own choices about what they’ll do as adults.” She started to lead them further into the building when a long fingered hand grasped her elbow gently and brought her to a stop. She turned and looked questioning at Perfuma.

“That’s really wonderful, Scorpia. I think what’re wondering is, where are the babies and children too small to attend schooling?” Scorpia eyes widened and her mouth formed into a perfect ‘o’ as she seemed to realise something.

“We don’t have any babies or small children here. The youngest orphan in Oasis is eight years old. They’re all the children from the Horde creches and other foundlings. There are babies here, I’m sure you’ve seen people out with them, but they all live with their families. I mean, sure, one day there might be new orphans, but for now just children from 7 to 18. Obviously some of them were babies when they came but they, you know, grow.” Scorpia used her claws to illustrate her words as she put them close together and then gradually separated them. 

“Let me show you my favourite part of this place!” She turned and started to lead the way again as the other three followed behind, falling in love with this strange community more and more as they went…

Not everyone was enjoying Capital quite as much. Glimmer was still wary of the intentions of this place and found it hard to believe that if they looked more closely they wouldn’t find a military base hidden away. Every person that walked passed and got too close, or nudged into her, received a suspicious glare and retreated quickly from the angry little woman. Frosta was more open minded and was enjoying sampling food from vendors along the way, though it was hard not to be infected with Glimmer’s paranoia as the day went on.

They started by going to the small library that was still sparsely filled but was obviously doing its best and allowed people access to an array of computer interfaces. There were a handful of people there, alongside the librarian, who were pawing over various tombs.

Glimmer had to hold Frosta back from launching herself at a young magicat woman who walked in, looking so similar to their old foe that it had taken Glimmer a moment to register that it couldn’t be the force captain who had almost destroyed her home. Frosta wasn’t so quick to release and already had her fist encased in ice before her elbow was grabbed and she received a firm shake of Glimmers head. The ice retreated and they were thankful to note that nobody seemed to have registered what had happened.

The girl who had walked in was already seated at a monitor and pressed buttons, the light of the screen illuminating her face and revealing that, actually, other than the wild hair, large ears and tail, she didn’t look much like Catra at all. Her fur was dark brown and her arms, revealed by a floaty white dress, were dappled with white and orange speckles and covered a form that was slender but clearly well fed. She was young, perhaps not yet twenty, and her youthfulness was accentuated when her tongue poked out of the corner of her moth as she concentrated. Frosta took a shuddering breath as she realised that she had very nearly done something terrible to an innocent because of her own (and her friend’s) fears.

They left the library cowed and walked the streets quietly, not really paying attention to where they were headed. Glimmer may not trust this place bu the last thing she wanted to do was hurt innocent people. Before she could ponder too much though they reached a less populated area. They walked down a street that was windowless and found themselves spilling out into an area that looked more industrial. There were machines whirring and signs on various walls directing people where to head. Frosta took out her tracker pad and started to take pictures of what they could see. This place could be what it seemed, any place as big as this would need a power plant and manufacturing area, but something about it struck the two women as wrong.

They walked farther, encountering no resistance, or sign of life at all, until they got to a tall sign on a corner. This contained a map of the whole of Oasis. It showed them that they had stumbled out of Central and were now in Industry. They obviously didn’t believe in fancy names here. On the map they could see a large building further up the path they were currently on. It looked like it dominated the place, although they couldn’t see it from there. Prison Block. It was simply labelled but revealed that this little utopia clearly had problems under its surface.

Who was held in this prison that they hadn’t been invited to view? Scorpia had made no mention of this area which simply raised more concerns. The two women looked at each other and turned tail, heading back to the hotel to wait for the others to return. They didn’t go to the prison, knowing the folly of that without backup, but they were sure to take more pictures…

Elsewhere, Mermista looked with bewilderment at the tall blond woman who had run off to a stall filled with fried pastries. Her face crinkled in disgust as she saw Adora stuff one of the doughy confections into her mouth whole and chew enthusiastically as her cheeks bulged like a chipmunk. Walking over warily Mermista ordered one for herself and ate it in sensible bites and had to agree that it was delicious. As she finished, Adora was ordering one of everything to be put into a paper bag to share with the others, so she said, though the sea princess was unsure how many of them would survive the trip back to the hotel.

“Hey,” Mermista’s voice caught the woman behind the counter off guard and she flinched at being addressed. Mermista and Adora shared a look, not sure to make of that. “So, can you tell us where the water comes from?” Because of course she was curious about her element, she could use her magic to find the source but it was banned and she at least was trying not to start an incident.

“Of course, of course.” The woman spoke fast and nervously. “The purple haired princess found something out here that she worked on and,” she clicked her fingers, “we had water for crops and to drink. I don’t really understand it but it’s got something to do with the ruins and the spire.” The woman shrugged and went to serve a new customer.

“What ruins do you think they found?” Mermista asked as they walked away.

“Must be more First Ones tech that Entrapta got her hands on. I wonder when we’ll get to see her?” It did seem odd that they hadn’t seen the Dryl princess yet.

“We should ask the council tomorrow.”

The pair turned the corner, Adora’s bag of treats swinging from her hand, when a sudden clamouring filled the air. Where there had been the quiet voices of pedestrians going about their business, now the air was filled with the sound of run-ing feet and excited shouting and laughing. Quickly stepping out of the way, they barely missed being bowled over by dozens of children spilling down the alleyways and into the market square that they had just left. As fast as the stampeded had come it was over and now the various food vendors were swarmed with delighted children getting after school snacks.

Adora suddenly felt compelled to stay and observe these youngsters. Mermista didn’t have a reason to leave, so they snuck over to a bench and sat down to observe. Adora reached into her bag and pulled out a white dusted pastry and this time nibbled it while they people watched.

What was immediately obviously was that the children were from a wide range of species and ages. The youngest in the square seemed to be seven or eight, while the largest were in their mid teens. Adora thought that it would be easy to tell which of the children were Horde raised, but as she watched them laugh and jostle it was impossible to see anything other than children who were having a good childhood. Mixed among the lizard-kin, humans and assorted beast-men, something else caught her eye.

First she noticed Lonnie’s gaggle of children were part of the group at the stall that she had just vacated, and then she noticed something else. Crowded close to Digby were four other children with large furred ears moving expressively among their wild hair, their tails lashing together messily behind them in excitement to get a cake. Each of them had fur in a different hews, from Digby’s patchy white, to unbroken grey to two who shared strikingly red fur with stripes of lighter fur littering them. Digby seemed to be the youngest, he was definitely the smallest, while one of the two ginger boys looked to be in his early teens.

Part of Adora had hoped that Digby was somehow Catra’s child, raised by her friends because she couldn’t do it herself. Although that thought had left a sour taste. Yet here were four more kittens, half of them too old to be anything related to Catra. On one hadn’t it made her happy that her former best friend hadn’t had to part with her child, while on the other Adora continued to be left without answers about her fate.

“You ok there, Adora?” Mermista leaned forward to catch her eye, clearly concerned.

“Yeah, just surprised to see so many magicats, you know. Growing up, we thought Catra was the only one.”

“Yeah, it is kinda weird, I’ve never seen another one either. It’s like they’re all here or something.” 

Adora decided that she would have to find a way to talk to Lonnie again and get some answers to the questions swimming around her mind. She wanted to ask Scorpia about Catra but asking in front of Glimmer would just cause the shorter woman to get more belligerent and that was the last thing she wanted. Maybe she could get Scorpia on her on later, at the bar they’d agreed to go to as part of their taste of life in Oasis. 

______________________

Evening in Oasis was truly beautiful. Sunset over the desert was unencumbered by anything that could mask the pristine beauty of the sun setting the sky alight. The group of outsiders had taken Scorpia up on her invitation to join her at a bar on the edge of Central that night. Having seen what the place was like when people were working, they were curios to see if things became more rowdy at night, especially on the outskirts of the most sophisticated area. Would they finally see the true face of the mercenaries, cut-throats and ex-soldiers come out? Certainly that was what some of the small group were hoping, if only to vindicate their initial impression.

Scorpia walked them through some darker, narrower, streets that they had been on in the day, even during their own investigations into the city. It was big and their time had been spent dividing it and finding out what technology they had, where the military infrastructure must be hiding (though they had yet to locate it) and being regaled with information about how the social support infrastructure worked. They had not even made it to the outskirts until now. The tall woman led them with ease along meandering walkways, sharing waves and greetings with many of the people that they passed. It was curious to not that nobody called her councillor or any type of title aside from her name. 

Before long they burst into a large square with brightly coloured buildings on every side and banners hanging down from street lights emblazoned with images of food and entertainment. This was more like what the Best Friend Squad would have anticipated from the little they had seen from the people of the Waste. Intriguing smells drifted around them, making their mouths water as they caught hints of roasted fish, friend meat and all matter of sweet goodness. Then, in perfect counterpoint to the clouds of smells bleeding out all around them came music that floated out from the largest building in the square. That also seemed to be where Scorpia was leading them, weaving them through the growing gaggle of people starting their evening.

As they got closer they realised that the buildings front walls were made of woven fabric which Scorpia swept back with a large claw and beckoned the others to head in. Adora ducked her head as she walked in and when she stood tall her breath was taken away by the vibrant colours of the inside of the bar. There was no roof to speak of. Instead criss-crossing metal beams held up different sheets of brightly died fabrics which allowed wide gaps for the moonlight to filter through. It was the softest part of Oasis that they had seen yet, though they had been promised a tour of the farms and houses on the outskirts later.

Sea Hawk strode forward like a man who had spend a large portion of his life in bars and taverns, choosing one of the empty tables and staking claim to it. He may be loud and a little silly, but he was no fool and selected a table that they could secure on two sides while facing towards both the bar and the large stage the stretched along one wall and was dotted with a variety of instruments. Two elfin women sat centre stage playing a box-like drum and a flute, accounting for the soothing melody that they had heard from outside. They all joined him and watched as more and more people of all types wondered in. 

A waiter was soon at their side, offering them a pitcher of some bright coloured fruit drink ‘on the house’ and sharing a gentle few words with Scorpia. This was all a stark contrast to Central but seemed to compliment it, enhancing both areas and showing that what had made the people of this place unique still lived on.

“Who owns this place?” Sea Hawk was the first to break the spell the bar seemed to have placed on them.

“What? Oh, this is Lonnie’s place…well I say Lonnie’s, she works the border so really it’s Kyle and Rogelio’s place. But they’re a family and they all live upstairs,” ‘upstairs’ seemed to be the sky, Adora was confused and from the looks of the others not the only one. Scorpia noticed. “Oh, the kitchen and the bar are actually inside a building, if you look you can see they are darker? That’s where their apartment is.”

“Kyle runs a bar?” Adora was incredulous. She could see Rogelio maybe acting as a bouncer but surely klutzy Kyle would spill more drinks than he would pour.

“I’ll let you see for yourself,” there was a chuckle in her words and she didn’t elaborate more. The drinks were poured and proved to be delightfully cold and tangy rather than sweet, quenching their thirst. 

“So, what’s good here, Scorpia?” And it was like a night out with old friends (which for the most part it was), ordering more drinks, eating some deep friend goodness knew what and chatting as the place got busier and busier around them. They could almost forget that they were surrounded by people who used to be their enemies.

As the light further dimmed from outside, dozens of lights flickered to life inside, making it seem more etherial by the minute. They noticed that the stage began to fill with a larger group, led by a tall, lithe figure In black, long blond hair bouncing around their shoulders. Black pants clung to narrow hips and a vest clung to lean muscles. Something about them seemed familiar to Adora, but she couldn’t place it.

New music filled the air, more complex and deeper this time. People were playing a range of instruments and creating a complex sound that was nothing like the orchestral arrangements that were so often heard in Brightmoon. As the music began to build and swell, people in the crowd began to cheer and clap, turning their attention to the musicians.

It was then that a deep, smooth voice began to ooz into the room, carrying words of happiness and friendship into the air and other voices joined it as the bar patrons sang along. Adora found herself staring fixedly at the singer. The more she looked the more she recognised the tilt of his head, the ungainly way that he danced, though now it seemed purposeful. Blond hair that had always been too unruly for a boy in the army, shone gold in the light and for the first time since they were children, she could understand why so many of their instructors had thought they were brother and sister when they were small.

Adora found herself rising to her feet and moving towards the entertainer before she knew what she was doing. The closer she got the more clearly she could see the changes that a decade had wrought on him. His jaw was more square, even though he had filled out, and accentuated by a tightly trimmed beard, as golden as his hair. She was only a few feet away when his name fell from her lips.

“Kyle?” His name spilled from her lips as a dazed whisper. It was one thing to see Scorpia, another to see somebody she had spent every day with until she was seventeen.

A hiss to her right made Adora spin in shock, another familiar face filling her vision and for a moment she was twelve again and in the canteen of the Fright Zone. The big lizard at her side wrapped and arm around her shoulder, which sat far below his own, and looked down at her with soft eyes and he hissed and clicked at her excitedly.

“Yeah, I guess he has changed. You too. You look very relaxed.” It was true, the very large Rogelio had an apron wrapped around him and a chefs hat at a jaunty angle atop the crests on his head, a sign that he was a mature male. 

Before Rogelio could say any more, a dark skinned hand wrapped around his other bicep and Lonnie rested her head against his arm. Adora smiled across the male’s body, and received a tired smile in reply.

“I see you found our bar.” The pride in her voice was obvious as Adora watched Rogelio bow his head to receive a kiss that spoke of love and reconnection after a day apart. The blond felt something twist inside her, different from when she saw Bow and Glimmer of Mermista and Sea Hawk share affection. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful. Really. And the food is top notch.” She saw the other two share a look and roll their eyes before she found herself laughing with them at her still predictable appetite. “Um, when did Kyle get sexy?”

Rogelio’s jaw dropped in surprise as Lonnie let out a shocked snort. They both looked at the stage, then each other, before finally meeting the gaze of the other woman. “You think he’s sexy, huh?” Adora felt her face burning with a blush as she tried to stutter out something that down’t quit come out.

Rogelio saved her from her embarrassment as he gently chastised Lonnie before excusing himself to head back to his work in the kitchen. Left alone together, Lonnie and Adora turned to watch Kyle as he started singing a softer, more melancholy song . “He is sexy isn’t he?” Her voice was soft but carried to Adora’s ears. “It’s amazing what not living in fear of discipline and death will do for you. Once we knew we were really free, he just blossomed. He took to this better than me and Rogelio, truthfully. As for the singing? We were all shocked about that; he was putting the kids to bed a few weeks after we brought them home and started to sing to them and,” she waved her hand as if the music in the air was visible. “That came out. The rest is history.” 

“How come you’re still a soldier then?” It had placed Adora that her old friend was still trapped in their old way of life, the irony that she was doing the exact same lost on her.

“Is that what you think I am?” Lonnie had turned fully to face her. Before Adora could respond to the disquieting question, a commotion on the far side of the bar drew her attention and caused a face splitting smile to cover her companion’s face. “See you later ‘Dora.” With that Lonnie was gone, heading to whatever was happing close to the bar. Adora craned her neck to see what was causing so many people to be shouting happily and moving towards the same area of the bar, but her view was blocked.

She found herself not wanting to go back to the table, so at a far slower rate followed Lonnie towards the bar, sitting at the end closest to the stage and far from the excitement at the other end of the long stretch of metal. Adora watched as Lonnie disappeared into the sea of bodies, and as they separated to let her through Adora caught a glimpse of a furred forearm reaching out to her before the gap was closed by more people coming to see the newcomer. 

Requesting another drink from the bar, she turned her back and leaned against the bar to continue to watch the band. From time to time she found her gaze wandering back to the big group that was starting to thin now the initial excitement of the new arrival had waned. Adora wondered if, perhaps, it was one of the council members. That would account for the excitement, although nobody had reacted to Scorpia’s presence that effusively. Thinking of the scorpioni, she looked over at her table of friends.

Frosta was no longer with the others, blue eyes searched for her until she was located dancing closely with a tall canid wearing some very bright colours. The younger woman was laughing and chattering excitedly. It was cute to see her acting like a kid. The others were still at the table, both the couples cuddling and sharing occasional kisses while Perfuma and Scorpia were learning close together, heads almost touching as they talked animatedly.

A burst of laughter, Lonnie’s, pulled her attention back along the bar where she caught a glimpse of a fur covered calf and a dark tail disappearing through a door to the side of the bar, followed by Lonnie. They must have been heading to her apartment. Adora couldn’t lie to herself, that tail looked awfully familiar but, having seen a few more magicat children during the day on the streets of Central, she didn’t want to make assumptions.

Their parents must be somewhere, right?

_____________________

There were more people filling the council building than on their first visit, men and women moving around with practiced ease with files and papers in hand. The same young man who had greeted them before was there again, still smiling benignly and making pleasantries. Unlike the first time, he ushered them into a small room to the side of the main council chamber. 

“The Council will be with you shortly, they’re just waiting for one of the attendees to arrive.Please help yourself to some refreshments.” He backed out of the room and closed the doors.

“What do you think this is about?” Frosta’s words filled the room and none of them had an answer.

Scorpia hadn’t been at the hotel to gather them this morning, replaced by a dour faced Lonnie who was once again dressed in her uniform, sans the helmet and face covering. She had been polite but there had been a detachment that she had learned in long years in the Horde, and Adora realised that this was her profession demeanour. It was odd to think that Lonnie was two people now, maybe three (soldier, wife, mother); while Adora felt like she was barely one. They had been escorted to the council building where Lonnie had left them and how they had found themselves in this room.

“Maybe they’re just discussing other business before they meet with us.” Bow shrugged as he spoke and Adora was thankful for his level head. 

He was right of course, there wasn’t necessarily anything nefarious about putting them in a waiting room. These were the people who ran the city, of course they would have other business to attend to that they wouldn’t want outsiders to be privy to. Glimmer, of course, was chaffed by having to take her turn. She and Frosta had shared the information that they had believed would be a bombshell the night before.

Glimmer had called them all back to her room when they returned in the afternoon and with a flourish revealed that she and the youngest princess had found an industrial area and evidence of a prison. The reaction she had received had ben mostly raised eyebrows and a low ‘duh’ from Mermista. Glimmer had tried to emphasise how suspicious it was that Scorpia had not mentioned it either day, though Perfuma had interjected that it was only natural for them to want to put their best face forward.

Together they had decided that it would be something that they would ask about during the meeting. It had defused things in the moment and then, once they had been out on the town with Scorpia, it really hadn’t seemed so important. That morning they had all had to agree that the night before had been fun and that Kyle was a very good entertainer.

They didn’t have long to wait before their merry escort returned and took them to the doors of the council chamber. He pushed open the doors and they realised that this was an open council session, as they noticed a selection of other people gathered in the rooms gallery. They walked down the aisle and found a cluster of seats had been set out for them. They took their seats and saw that all of the council members were seated in the same positions as during their previous encounter. Scorpia discretely, or as delicately as she could, raised a claw in a tiny wave.

Greetings were made, and the council reiterated their intentions, then opening the floor to the princesses. It had been agreed that Perfuma would be the one to speak for the group, and she smoothly thanked them for their hospitality so far and laid out that they would be delighted to accept the offer of a longer stay in order to see where they could work together. There were pleased sounds from the people on the dais and in the gallery. 

As Perfuma opened her mouth to continue, ready to ask about the prison, the doors to the chamber could be heard opening and two sets of feet could be heard walking into the room. One pair of heavy boots made dull thudding steps while the other steps were whisper soft on the ground. The princesses turned, and then all hell broke out.

Glimmer’s hands were sparking with magic even before her eyes finished registering what they were seeing, Frosta and Mermista not far behind. Perfuma kept a cool head, staying back, while Adora, Bow and Sea Hawk stepped up in front of the primed princesses, trying to stop them doing anything rash.

A long, sharp laugh echoed around the room, followed by the sound of somebody getting hit in the shoulder accompanied by a chastising hiss, and Adora found herself turning her head to lock her gaze with the mismatched eyes of the one person she had expected to see this whole time, but dreaded seeing at the same time.

Lonnie and Catra continued walking through the room and came to rest standing in front of the council, ignoring the princesses behind them. Catra shared some muted words with Huntara and the sweaty human man whose name Adora could not recall. He was annotated as he spoke, and blue eyes watched as the other woman shook her head firmly. Eventually some kind of consensus was reached and Catra joined Lonnie standing to one side of the councillors at parade rest.

“Enough!” The voice that cut through the room came from the androgynous lizard who seemed to observe everything and catalogue it with their uncanny eyes. “As entertaining as this is ladies, you need put the magic away and sit down. You have broke one of our fundamental principles, but this once we shall overlook it as you were obviously shocked to see out police chief. We deal with our problems like grown ups here, which means you will sit down and you will use your words.” Their brow lifted as they spoke, the rhythm and timbre of their voice a smooth blend of command and condescension.

Feeling like children under the weight of every eye in the room, they all retook their seats. Glimmer kept her violet eyes trained on the cat woman whose tail lazily waved behind her, revealing no concern. A voice called her name and she was given the opportunity to raise their grievance.

“Council member,” she poured ever ounce of her mother into her words. “You must realise how provocative it is for us to see Force Captain Catra here. She was responsible for almost destroying Brightmoon, during the war, as well as the kidnap of myself and several other princesses. She attacked both The Kingdom of Snows and Salineas. She was second in command of the Horde!” Her voice remained level, even as her hands fisted at her sides.

While Glimmer spoke, Adora couldn’t tear her eyes away from the pair of uniformed women. If Lonnie had changed with the passing of years, Catra had gone through a full metamorphosis. She stood taller than when the blond had last seen her, having a few inches on Lonnie even though her feet were bare. Her greater height was accompanied by more well developed musculature, she was still slighter than Adora or Lonnie, but Catra’s muscles were much better defined and her frame, though still lithe, was no longer skinny. The fur that covered her seemed longer too, giving her a shaggy, soft look and Adora felt her fingers itch to pet her as she had when they were children. It shone with health and at least the markings on her upper arms were how she remembered. As were her mesmerising amber and blue eyes. 

What was less familiar was the way her hair was cut close to her head on either side, while the centre was long and swept to one side, a few tiny braids falling in front of the opposite ear and the rest cascading down her back, ending below her shoulder-blades. She looked like a desert barbarian version of herself.

“We understand your concerns. What you must acknowledge is that all of the events of which you speak occurred over a decade ago. We were all much younger then, I believe the chief was only sixteen during the events at Brightmoon.” There were more gasps around the room at this revelation, than there hand been upon hearing she had invaded the kingdom. “Much has changed and we believe that everybody in Oasis should have the chance at a fresh start. Without Catra, none of this would have been possible. We have her to thank for everything.”

Adora snuck another glance at the magicat and saw her duck her head and move uncomfortably at the words. It was not something she would have expected from the woman who had always wanted adulation.

“You may not have reparation, she owes you nothing after all this time. We will arrange a meeting for you so that you can talk through this grievance. We hope that this will not hurt our chances at a peaceful working relationship.”

The meeting carried on in a much less charged way, though none of the Alliance could stop sneaking glances as the magicat in the corner. She stood tall and still, eyes locked with the wall until she and Lonnie were dismissed. Adora was the one who could’t look away as the two women walked passed. She attempted to make eye contact with her old friend, but couldn’t catch her eye, finding herself left watching her back as they got further away until the doors closed on them, hiding Catra from view, leaving Adora behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come back for a switch into Catra's POV next time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last three days but its Catra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some questions are answered in this part and a lot more are posed, I hope.

Pain shot through her nose, starling her out of her slumber. Blearily, she looked around for an assailant, barely managing to dodge the elbow that was heading back to her face for a second blow. The tension in her body eased as she glanced down her body and saw the gaggle of small, furred body piled up around and beside her, pinning her to the floor in a warm bundle. It wasn’t the first time she woke up that way, but it was still hard to get used to. Their hands, arms and feet all around, her touching her, still made her uncomfortable even after all these years. 

She knew the kittens needed the attention; she was one of the few adults among them, but she’s never been comfortable with being touched. Well, that wasn’t strictly true, but none of the people laying on her were the people whose touches she had craved. She pushed that thought away as she carefully extracted her body from the heavy breathing, purring pile. It took a little finesse but she was soon crouched over them and not pinned below. There were a few groans at the absence of her body heat, and bodies twisted and turned to fill the void she had left, rearranging themselves by instinct until they were all peacefully sleeping once again on the cushioned floor. She made her way out of the large dormitory and headed towards her own room.

Reaching the blue painted door, her ears twitched as they caught the tiny sounds of mewling coming from the small bed in the corner. She walked in on soft feet, eyes well accustomed to the dark, and made her way to the curled up ball of fluff. The sheets had fallen down to reveal a bushy tail wound around a pudgy arm and clasped tightly in a fist. For a moment Catra just watched the kitten breath, before moving to rest her hand lightly on the exposed back, feeling the ribcage expand and contract under her hand. A wash of relief always coursed through her when she felt the soft fur under har hand.

The toddler never moved, so deeply asleep that nothing short of an explosion would wake her. Catra often wondered if she had ever slept so soundly, all of the kittens in the orphanage slept soundly, even after all that had happened to them. Even the adults claimed to sleep through the night. It never seemed to have been a reality for her, all she could ever remember was nights plagued with bad dreams and fear; even now, she woke almost every night, heart pounding and unable to get back to sleep. It was part of the reason she was first to volunteer for night and evening shifts, at least then she was exhausted enough to rest.

Pulling the blankets back up to cover the fragile form, she walked over to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Stretching to get out the kinks from sleeping among the kittens, she drew her uniform shirt over her head and threw it with negligent grace to land in the hamper by the door. It was soon followed by her pants and underwear, leaving her standing, naked, in the dark. She reached up and turned on the soft light over the sink, blinking against the intrusion as she made her way to turn on the shower.

Waiting for the water to heat up, she went through the ritual of cleaning her teeth, grinning broadly at herself in the mirror as she checked her sharp fangs. She studied her own face for a moment, thinking back to the child that she had been and the woman that she was. The eyes that looked back at her were still mismatched, but no longer haunted as they used to be. There was still a sadness, from new losses and old, hiding in their depths though, that only a few would see. She ran her hands over her face, chin and cheekbones just as sharp as ever and pushed her hair out of her face, enjoying how the shaved sides prickled at her palms in a way her fur never did. 

Finally the water was hot enough and she walked under the spray, rinsing away the day. Tomorrow was an off day and she would get to spend it with the children, forgetting her colossal responsibilities to this place that she had helped build. Washing quickly, she cut the water, shaking the bulk of the water out of her thick fur before she grabbed a towel and rubbed it vigorously over her body. Re-entering the bedroom, she threw on a pair of loose shorts and a crop top. She walked passed her bed without stopping, instead crawling on top of the comforter on the small bed in the corner.

Catra rested her head on the pillow beside the tousled one that already resided there, and curled her own body around the ball of child. Her arms pulled the little one towards her body and the two melted together on the cramped bed, Catra’s back hanging off the edge of the bed. Purring deep in her chest, there was nowhere else she’d rather be. A tear broke free from her eye as she thought about who was missing from this little tableau, as it often did in the dark, and she let it fall as she pressed a kiss to the fragile ear beside her lips.

____________________________ 

Yarsha ran through the halls squealing in delight as her pursuer got closer and closer. Her tiny claws clacked against the floor, helping her to find purchase as she threw her diminutive frame around corners. A bushy tail waved out behind her, flapping back and forth to keep her balance on her pudgy little legs. 

“I’m gonna get you!” The voice echoed towards her and made the child scream with laughter as she saw the shadow of her chaser getting closer. 

The little girl was so excited, that she wasn’t paying attention as she hit the top of the stairs. Still too young to be in complete control of her body, she was soon airborne, limbs scrabbling, grasping at air. Laughter turned to screaming as the floor flew towards her.

Big furry arms scooped her out of the air, and she was spinning, little claws digging into flesh as she hung on for all she was worth. It was all over in a moment, from her fall to her rescue. Catra landed silently on the ground, the kitten held close to her body, fear coursing though both of them. Thankfully all of the other inhabitants of the orphanage were in school and at work, meaning that there was no-one to see her sag into a nearby chair, shaking.

“You’re ok, sweet girl, you’re ok.” The two cats rocked together, both pulling reassurance out of each other. The little one sniffled and rubbed her head under her protectors chin. “You gotta be more careful Yar-Yar.” Catra pulled back so that she could lock eyes with the yellow ones of the child.

“I’mma sowwy.” Her chubby little face was solemn even as her words, still hard to understand around her sharp little teeth, spilled out.

“Hey, you don’t need to be sorry. It was an accident. Just remember, we might be smart and quick and really, really bendy, but we can still fall and hurt ourselves.” No longer full of adrenaline, she sat the toddler back on her knees and took her hands, dwarfed in her own much bigger ones, and pulled them to her lips to kiss the pads. It made the child giggle for the first time since falling. 

“Hey, shall we get some flowers and go visit Zu?” They always enjoyed the walk to the flower shop and then out to Freedom.

“Yay! See Zu!” Yarsha clapped her hands excitedly, almost slapping Catra in the process and making her laugh. 

“Come on then Yar-Yar, let’s go potty and then we’ll go for a walk.”

It was surprisingly easy to get out of the orphanage in the next ten minutes. When you didn’t have to wrestle children into coats or shoes, things were really easy. Catra slung a backpack over her shoulder with everything they would need for their excursion and then held out her hand to the buzzing ball of fluff to take. They made a comical sight, the two year olds arm upraised to keep it nestled in the much larger hand, tail wound around the tall feline’s thigh.

Wondering though Capital was always exciting for the small child. There were colours and smells and people everywhere. Sometimes they would go to visit the council and she would be allowed to sit at the big table and play with Huntara’s little hammer; or Double Trouble would turn into funny characters and make her laugh and tickle her tummy. That was always when Ra had things to do there.

Catra loved Capital, hell she loved all the parts of this patchwork city that they had made. Capital was the jewel at its heart, clean and bright and made to show that they could be peaceful. Bazaar was for pleasure and Market for commerce. Industry was a necessary blot on the landscape that kept the place going, and Freedom, the large sprawling suburb of farms and houses was more than its counterpart. If sixteen year old Force Captain Catra could see what she had accomplished a scant few years she wouldn’t believe it.

She led the child through the streets of Capital, waving to familiar faces here and there. It was a long walk to Market, so after a while she put the packs straps over both shoulders and hoisted the toddler onto her shoulders. Gleeful little hands grabbed at the long hair that grew along the middle of her head and pulled like the reins of a horse, heels kicking back and forth and making the woman wince just a little.

Market was the most exciting place for a kitten. It was filled with people, and colours and smells. Their very discrete trade rout brought in spices and other things they were not set up for yet. Yarsha wriggled where she was sitting until Catra placed her back on the ground, watching her run off to the price market, walking quickly to keep her in sight. She came to a stop and watched the confident little one reach up and pat the stall holder on the leg before starting to babble excitedly at them. Green eyes looked up and met hers as the adult magicat crouched down to look at the child as she chattered to them. 

Catra watched for while before scooping up her companion and promising her fellow cat that they would come back another day and buy some herbs. They were waved away and finally found themselves at the flower shop. This was the kitten’s other favourite place, the bright colours and smells always making her purr like an engine. They grew the flowers that were sold here in Freedom, so there wasn’t much variety, but it was a symbol of the success of their agriculture and the freedom they had to just enjoy pretty things. It was a small things but it always made Catra proud of what she had helped to achieve.

“What shall we get for mama today, sweet girl?” Catra trailed around the shop behind the child who was sniffing each blossom.

“Um…” Pudgy little face crinkling in thought, she took a sniff at a purple flower that had strange, spikes leaves. Then sneezed adorably. “That one no good. Up Ra!”

Catra obeyed the little dictator and lifted her into her arms, carrying her over to a stand of pink flowers with softly rounded petals. Delicate hands reached out and stroked the satiny surface before pulling one out of the display and waving it towards the pixie-like woman who ran the place. 

“This peas.” The proprietor looked to the adult and received a smile in confirmation.

“Of course little lady,” she was used to this pair coming and rooting through the flowers so knew how big a bunch to prepare. Soon they were furnished with a big bunch of flowers and the florist received a kiss on the cheek along with her payment from the child.

Waving goodbye, they were off again, Yarsha once again sitting astride Catra’s shoulder with her tail wrapped around the woman’s neck so that the older magicat could carry the flowers. Sometimes, when the heat was too much, they would take a cart out to Freedom, but today there was a breeze so Catra set out on the forty minute trek to their destination.

After a while, Catra felt a weight fall heavily onto the top of her head, a sure sign that the kitten had dozed off and coiled her body over. The woman reached up her free hand and grasped one little bare foot to further secure her cargo. The walk was long but filled with marvels to take in. From the towering building s they had left behind to the incomprehensible expanses of grass and crop that they walked through, farm houses dotted here and there, to the clutch of quant little cottages with well kept gardens that made up a lot of Freedom. They weren’t going that far though, turning off the main road and heading out through the track in the field.

Soon they were walking through a large grassed area, stony edifices jutting out of the ground here and there. It was sparsely filled as yet, but with the passing of time would become thick with them as they city grew with the years. Catra trod a well worn path, placing the flowers onto a bench before lifting the child down from her shoulders and snuggling her until she was fully awake again. Setting her alongside the flowers, Catra also removed her pack and pulled a sheet of paper.

“Time to see Zu, Yar-Yar.” She took the little hand in hers again and they walked towards a tall column that stood a few feet away.

As they got closer, the little girl dropped the larger hand so that they could both reached out and lay their hand against the cool stone before leaning forward and resting their foreheads against it. Silence fell between them before the child broke the stillness.

“Hi, Zu.” Catra placed the flowers into the vase that jutted out of the stone. She handed the piece of paper to the child, who unfolded it to show the incomprehensible drawing to the stone.

Catra sank to the grass, resting her back against the sturdy stone, feeling the cold soak into her back through her shirt. Soon the little ones chatter started to fade and she crawled onto the lap of the seated woman, curling up and purring to herself until she was napping once again. Catra raised her hand and starts to run it through her hair soothingly, feeling the toddler fall into a deeper sleep. One of the joys of having a kitten was their predilection for napping.

Wind rustling through the grass and the soft purrs were all there was to hear for a while. Catra relaxed in this place they had visited at every opportunity over the last eighteen months. Looking down at the innocent face of a child who didn’t really remember the woman memorialised by the stone, she felt a wash of loss mix with affection.

“Tace, you’d be so proud of our baby. She’s the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.” She moved her head to be able to press her cheek against the cool stone. “I think you’d be proud of me too, you know. All those times you told me I could be softer with the kittens. They slept in a pile on top of me last night. I’m not going to tell you I liked it, because you know damn well I didn’t, but they did.” Her free hand started to pull up individual blades of grass and watch them float away in the breeze. “I’m trying to give them all what you did.” She let out a soft, melancholy laugh. “I still wanna be like you when I grow up.” She sighed heavily. “I wish you and I could have finished growing up together.”

Silence fell again. Catra sat almost content, beside the memorial of the woman taken away from them too soon. Magicat’s didn’t bury their dead, believing the spirit needed to be set free from the prison of the body for it to be reborn. It had all seemed very odd to Catra when she first heard about it years before while learning the traditions of her people, but now she hoped that Tace had been released, this stone being enough of an anchor for her and Yarsha. 

She knew that lunchtime had passed, but they could eat on the bench when their daughter woke up. She let herself begin to drift, feeling safe in this place that she knew no-one would dare desecrate. The peace was shattered when a high pitched beep started emanating from the pack on sitting on the bench. Catra jerked awake, smacking her head on the stone and jolted the little one awake too harshly, making her start to cry in bewilderment. Catra hoisted them both up, shushing the little one, as she huffed her way to their things. Her subordinates knew better than to interrupt her on her rare days off, so this better be good.

Setting the now calmed child on the bench, she rummaged inside and pulled out her coms, pressing the answer button and wedging it between her shoulder and cheek. She barked out a ‘what?’ As she fished out a bottle of juice and a box of meat and rice for the child. She popped open the box, set it in the girl’s lap and pushed a spoon into her hand. Seeing her start to tuck in, she walked back towards Tace’s grave.

“Say that again, Lonnie!” Truthfully all she had registered was that it was Lonnie on the line.

“Chief, I know you’re off today but you need to hear this. The Princesses found us this morning. I was patrolling and I brought them to the council, I just left them.”

“Shit,” this was not what they had planned for. They would reveal themselves to the outside world in a decade or so, not while things were still being built. “How?”

“Entrapta, I think. They said that a flying machine was seen in the sky.” Lonnie’s sigh was louder than the breeze.

“Damn it, I told her not to test it yet.” Catra had known what the scientist was working on, and really she kicked herself for not seeing this coming.

She looked over, pleased to see Yarsha was still munching away contentedly. “ Which Princesses?” She feared she knew.

“All of them…well not that net one. I don’t think.” There was silence for a moment and she listened to Lonnie’s heavy footfalls, clearly walking on a street and not the border sand. “Adora is here.” There it was. 

“Of course she is.” She no longer hated the blond, she was too old for that childish grudge, but the rebel fighter always managed to derail her plans and she couldn’t see why that would be different now. “Are you heading back to the border?”

“Yeah, my shift isn’t over.” 

“Don’t. Call your second and let them know. If I now my bureaucrats, they’ll tour them round the place. I’ll make sure it’s Scorpia. Go change and tag along. Let’s see what their agenda is.”

Lonnie muttered her assent and closed the call. Catra walked back to the bench, picking up a napkin and wiping some of the source off of the Childs chin before handing her a biscuit as she started to eat her own sandwich, while sending a message to Scorpia.

She refused to let the Alliance ruin her day with Yarsha, she would meet with them tomorrow when she was back on duty. She wasn’t a member of the council for a reason.

____________________ 

Fastening the buttons on her sand coloured shirt, before tucking the tails into her knee length pants, Catra turned her head to laugh at the sight of Yarsha hopping around trying to put her foot wraps on. She was at that age where she was adamant that she could dress herself, no matter what the reality might be, and Catra was so amused by it that she didn’t have the heart to stop her. Shaking her head, tail coiling merrily, she pulled her padded jerkin over her head and snapped the buckles together. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, and chaffed at her fur, but she liked to look as much like her team as she could to promote solidarity. 

“Come on Fuzz-ball, let’s get out of here.” Yarsha mewled indignantly but let herself be lifted up and carried out of the room. 

Catra launched herself over the second floor balcony, arms full, and landed in a crouch on the floor, suddenly swarmed by older magicat children as well as a few scopioni, lizard and human children of various ages. Yarsha shouted excitedly as she was lifted from Catra’s arms and passed among the older teens for kisses and tickles.

“Alright, you little monsters, time for breakfast. Some of us have places to be.” She looked pointedly at two of the younger children who looked down at the floor, chagrinned. Lonnie had called the previous evening, filling her in on the princesses and also the truancy of some of the children. She knew instantly who would have been with Lonnie’s brood and made sure they knew, that she knew. 

Breakfast in the orphanage was loud and boisterous. The kitchen staff laid out trestles of food and the children and adults who lived one site helped themselves. Aside from Catra and Scorpia, ten other ex-Horde adults lived in the orphanage, some working there while others had jobs that took them elsewhere in the day. It made for a sense of community in the place rather than just obligation.

Catra set Yarsha in her high chair at Scorpia’s table, getting a happy wave from the woman whose mouth was full, before she loaded up a plate for her and the child. Some mornings, like today, she was still in awe at the spread of food to choose from. Grains and cereals, cured meats and slabs of bread and cheese were like nothings could ever have imagined as a child. She watched the older children, many former Horde, who would have known nothing but ration bars and now were able to make choices that at their age she never had. 

“There you go Yar-Yar, eat up.” She placed a warm bowl of oatmeal dusted with cinnamon in front of the toddler, who grabbed her spoon and began to tuck in enthusiastically.

“Hey, Wildcat!” Scorpia’s voice was warm and effusive, but a little calmer than it used to be.

“Morning Scorp.” Catra began to shovel folk-fulls of egg into her mouth. Some habits were hard to break, and when eating among others she still felt compelled to eat fast lest somebody take it away. “What’s today looking like?” They tried not to talk shop in front of the children, but today time was short.

“I’m going to take them on a proper tour today. Yesterday I just gave them the highlights. They seemed pretty receptive…well that sparkly one was not very happy but I think the others listened. Thought I’d show them places like the hospital, school, here.” It was a good strategy to show them the things they had achieved to improve people’s lives.

“Sounds like a plan. When?” Salty bacon hit her tongue as she took another bite. 

“I’m heading to the hotel now, actually.” Scorpia’s plate was empty, Catra noticed.

“Great, me and Fuzzy-butt can walk with you until we get to Rogelio’s place.” Cleaning up the little girl, the three headed out, calling goodbyes to the room and receiving an ear splitting chorus of replies that left all three of them laughing. 

Scorpia hoisted the tiny girl onto her shoulders, careful of the spikes, and strolled down the street waving at everyone they passed. They didn’t talk about the possible repercussions of the interlopers, instead chatting about nothing to pass the time. There would be enough of the day spent on them.

They separated so that Catra could take Yashra to Lonnie’s place. Walking through Bazaar in the morning was like walking through a ghost town. It was a part of this young city that was alive at night, whee many of those who found it hard to integrate had found a place. All the shutters were closed and the stalls closed up. Yashra ran ahead, straight to the biggest building in the square and passed it to the almost hidden side door. At night this was inside the curtained seating area, but with it all shut up it was the only way in and out. She stood beside the closed door, bouncing on her bare feet.

Catra fished out her key and let herself into the building, bustling the pair of them up the stairs to the main living area. Thankfully everyone inside was already awake, thanks to the presence of three children, or the little girls shouted hello would have drawn them from their beds.

“Morning kitten,” Kyle walked out from the kitchen and scooped the toddler into his arms and received a sloppy kiss on his cheek fo this trouble. The tall, slender man sidled up to Catra and pressed his forehead to hers briefly, in greeting. “Lonnie’s already gone. As you can see, the kids aren’t quite ready for school yet.”

“Thanks Kyle, I’m sure she filled you in on what’s going on.” She leaned forward and kissed the child before ruffling her hair, then cheekily ruffling Kyle’s luxurious main and hastening out before he could catch her. Heading down the stairs she heard “Rogely!” Screamed at the top of powerful lungs as the kitten saw her favourite person.

_____________________

Marching into the council building, Catra was no longer a carer and a parent, she was the police chief of the city. It’s protector and guardian. When she and Scorpia had started to cut a swathe through the Crimson Waste, absorbing gang after gang into her own, she could never have imagined this. It was Huntara who had been the catalyst for more, in the end. She wasn’t willing to be absorbed, but she was willing to join forces, creating a power vortex that pulled all of the Waste together. All they had needed was a goal to consolidate them and taking the Fright Zone had provided it. In less than two years they were ready.

Catra, with the help of Double Trouble and those like them, had infiltrated their way into the Fright Zone and started to plant seeds of dissent. It had been surprisingly easy to get people to question their way of life and look for a change. It was like they had spread a disease until all of the soldiers, and most of the Force Captains were infected. Without Shadow Weaver there to intimidate people into capitulation and Hordak still locked away in his lab, the coup had been more of a mass discretion than an assault. 

With the Fright Zone emptied, the people of the Waste had wasted no time in raising it to the ground. It was a catharsis for all and brought the two sides together in solidarity. A solidarity that had led to Capital.

Catra walked into the council chamber, looking around and noticing that only two of the council were present. Back, in the beginning, people had wanted to vote for her to represent the Horde here. She had rejected it out of hand, knowing that, in the end , it would be more of a detriment to the burgeoning city than a help.

“Take a seat, Chief.” Huntara’s gruff voice filled the room. Catra pulled out a seat and slumped into it bonelessly. Waiting.

“Hello Kitten, I’m sure Scorpia and Lonnie had told you all about our visitors.” Double Trouble’s perma-smirk stretched wide across their face as they spoke.

“Of course they did, I am the chief of police. They pose no immediate danger, if they haven’t called in the cavalry yet then they won’t. We need to find out their angle, obviously, but this is what we wanted eventually.” Catra wasn’t worried about invasion just yet. 

“Scorpia said as much.” As though speaking her name had invoked her, Huntara’s com lit up on the desk. The ex-mercenary picked up the device and scanned the message there. “Scorpia says that the princesses want to split up. Some will go with her and the others want to explore on their own. She’s asking if she should allow it.”

“We have nothing to hide, the place is fabulous and none of our people are stupid enough to reveal too much to strangers.” Double Trouble waved a dismissive hand.

“DT’s right. Let them. I’ll make sure we have eyes on them so that they don’t do anything stupid.” Catra was already running a mental catalogue of who was already stationed where.

Huntara typed a quick missive back and turned back to their conversation. It took an hour for them to run through their plans for the following day. There was no doubt that seeing her was going to be like a red rag to the Alliance, so she would need to keep a firm hold on her temper and snark. Time might have passed, and she might have grown up, but she was still a snarky, short tempered little shit at her core. She just had a better hold on it.

_________________

Seldom had a day seemed to last so long. What with monitoring the movements of the Alliance, dealing with two fights in Market and just the reams of paperwork that her position accrued, it seemed like she had barely sat down in her office before the sun was setting. Scorpia had kept a close eyes on the people with her, while Adora and the water one had mainly stayed in public areas and enjoyed the food. Sparkles, on the other hand, had been harder to keep tabs on, which had proved to be a headache all on its own. 

Rubbing at tired eyes she turned off the computer screen in front of her and stood up from her desk. Her spine popped as she straightened. Somewhere along the line she had missed lunch and her stomach growled angrily. 

Casting a final glance around her office, she walked through the bull pen bidding farewell to the night shift. Stepping out onto the street, the air was warm with a gentle breeze that ruffled her hair. Walking briskly, she pulled out her com to let the boy’s know that she was on her way. The reply was almost instantaneous and she rolled her eyes, of course the Alliance would be there.

The sun was down by the time she got there, she hated days when she missed dinner with Yarsha, the little one was probably already asleep. It was the price of building the place. 

Pulling the curtain back close to the door, she stepped inside only to be engulfed in a crowd of ex-Horde, all whooping at seeing her. It was unusual, in fact it was a daily event. Put a little grog into the young men and women who grew up with her and suddenly she was a star when they saw her. She was surrounded and a dozen people were talking at her at once as she stood bemused at the end of the bar. The noise was deafening and she felt her ears flattening to her head to protect her. People were offering her drinks and asking her about the strangers. It was strange to think that many of these people didn’t remember who the strangers were. She would never be able to forget.

It wasn’t long before she smelt Lonnie’s familiar scent, reaching out to break the crowd and pull her friend to her side. The dark skinned woman crashed into her side and wrapped her arm around her waist to steady herself. Both of them were laughing. Catra felt her fur start to stand on end, knowing who was watching the crowd from the end of the bar. It was a familiar sensation she had known since they were small. She just hoped that Adora could not see her through the throng.

Soon she was trailing Lonnie up into the apartment, waving a lazy greeting to the children sprawled on the floor, doing their homework on the coffee table. Digby leapt up and threw himself at her, and she let the momentum propel her into one of the overstuffed shares, hugging the little boy back. He had spent only a handful of weeks at the orphanage before he had become a part of this family, but all of the magicat’s shared a bond so they were always happy to reconnect.

She nudged Ellia with her foot and the girl giggled while Fernando just snorted and got back to work, as though he wasn’t the biggest hooligan of them all. Digby slid back to the floor and Catra found a cup pushed into her hand by Lonnie. Looking down she saw it was a big mug of the hearty soup that Rogelio had become expert at. She smiled gratefully and brought the food to her lips. The delicious flavour filled her mouth and her empty stomach settled. 

“So,” she said after a while. “Why are they all here?”

“Scorpia invited them. So far, they’re just hanging out. Filling my pockets with cash.” Lonnie took a sip of tea. “Adora told me she thought that Kyle was ‘sexy’.” The two of the locked eyes, and then burst out laughing.

“Hey, that’s my husband you’re laughing at!” Lonnie tried for indignant through her laughter.

Setting her empty mug down, Catra lent forward and rested her elbows on her knees. She looked at Lonnie, studying her across from her. When they were young they had clashed, often fighting like, well, cat and dog. It wasn’t that Catra had hated Lonnie, she had been afraid of her. Afraid that Lonnie would get between her and Adora, and when Adora was gone that Lonnie would find a way to step over her. It had all been senseless in the end. Now they were a family; Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio like her brothers and sister, helping her to care for Yarsha and look after herself.

“Who’d have ever though that we’d be here, like this, and Adora would be the stranger?” The words were low but they carried to the other woman.

“Hey, no melancholy here. Adora doesn’t matter. You have us, we're not going to change sides and go chasing after She-ra. You gave us this life. You, the council, Tace and the pride. We know that.” Catra felt tears in her eyes at Lonnie’s words and covered her face with her hands to hide them. 

It must have been a longer day than she thought.

____________________

“What are you doing?” Lonnie hissed at her as they stood outside the council chamber. 

Lonnie had noticed something different about the magicat as soon as she saw her approach her in the halls after she had deposited the princesses. The chief was always neatly in uniform, but today her uniform was more pristine than ever, the button on her shirt fully closed to the neck and every buckle on her jerkin shone in the bright light of the hall. Both those things could be ignored, if not for the fact the Catra’s hair had been groomed to perfection, sides shaved as short as her face fur and the top long and swept to one side. A series of small braids with gold cuffs fell in front of her uncovered ear. She looked fierce, like a tamed wild animal.

“What?” Catra had been fidgeting with the buttoned down collar and snatched her hand back as though she had been caught ding something wrong.

“Fidgeting like a first year cadet. Are you nervous?” 

“No!” The word was undermined by the squeak at the end.

“You know they have nothing to judge you on, right? They’ve been working on the Fright Zone for years and still only have a little village and you’ve done this.” Lonnie reached out and nudged her shoulder encouraging.

“I didn’t do this, we all did.” It was something that Lonnie had noticed about the feline over the years, that she was unwilling to stand up for how much she was responsible for everything; the city, the city, the uprising, the other magicats. She had always been so eager to seek even the smallest amount of praise when they were children and now she shied from it. It was obvious to everyone but the former Force Captain, that she should be on the council, if not its leader but instead she had chosen a background role keeping law and order.

Catra looked down at her watch so that she didn’t have to look her friend in the eye and saw that it was time to make their grand entrance. “Come on, time to show our hand.”

The pair of them walked, shoulder to shoulder, through the double doors and started to make their way down the aisle. They knew they had been noticed almost as soon as they took their first step, seeing the women at the front of the room swivel to look at them and then they did exactly what Catra had anticipated. It made Catra let out an involuntary peel of laughter at their predictability, and received a sharp smack in admonishment from Lonnie, throwing her a sheepish look at her presumption.  
The sparkle princess got all glitter bomb, while the ice one (who had got big, Catra noticed) and the water one also got into a battle stance. She was curious to note that Adora simply got between the magic and the new arrivals. 

As if she knew she was being watched, Adora was suddenly looking right at her. Catra met her eyes without faltering. This had been a moment she had felt apprehensive about. The other may be predictable, but you could always count on Adora to ruin your plans, even by intent or misadventure. Catra didn’t want their plans crushed, this time they were working for good. As she stared into blue eyes that used to be as familiar to her as the ones that looked back at her in the mirror, she expected to feel that old twist in her heart and the accompanying emptiness she used to feel at being left by the person she cared for the most. It wasn’t there. Instead it felt like looking into the eyes of a stranger, and she broke her gaze away as she and Lonnie moved to play their part in this council meeting. 

There would be time to think about Adora later. Maybe Lonnie was right, though, and Adora didn’t matter anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ever wonder what happened to Shadow Weaver...


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angry glitter bomb rages at a baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not super happy with this chapter - but it needed to be there to get us to some funky flash-backs in the next section.

Adora made it back from the meeting in a daze. She could not pull her mind away from what she had witnessed in the large hall. Catra had seemed at once so familiar and yet so different. Her posture had been relaxed, even when Glimmer and the others had taken up a fighting stance, she hadn’t bristled, just that laugh that seemed to have escaped her without intent. A far cry from her gremlin-laugh that she had always used to rile up an opponent even when they were children. Hearing that laugh had made Adora’s heart beat faster, reminding her of the happy, honest laughter that she had heard so much when they were children running and hiding together in the dark, and which had started to die even before she ran from the Horde to join the rebellion.

Alone in her room, she went to the window and slumped onto the sill, once again looking down at the city that Catra built. It felt different now. Yesterday she had marvelled at how much had been achieved in so little time, but had chalked it up to so many people working together. Now, as she looked at sleek houses, and further the Bazaar and then fields beyond, she saw a testament to Catra’s grit and determination. Was Glimmer right, was Catra really the secret queen of this place? Were they being duped to believe she was just a cog in the administrative machine? 

Adora realised that it didn’t seem like the Catra that they had fought, who had been hell bent on proving herself and moving up the ranks to all but take over the Horde. Growing up they had both always talked about ruling the world. Sitting alone on top of the world, as they knew it, talking about being free and having power over their lives, Catra had always seemed so invested in their collective future as Force Captains and then running the Horde. Adora didn’t know if she believed that the younger woman could work happily for a government without running it. There had to be a reason why, another shoe to drop. She couldn’t have changed that much, could she?

Sighing, she leaned her forehead against the cool glass. It felt like she had conjured this place up, filled with all the ghosts of her past, with all her melancholy thoughts of being left behind. Of course, not all of her past had been left behind in the Fright Zone, some of it had followed her to Brightmoon but she had spent a third of her life trying to avoid it in the pristine halls.

Breath steaming up the window, which felt odd in the desert, she reached out a finger and swiped it through the fog. A knock sounded on the door and she jumped, banging her forehead into the glass and cursing under her breath as she rubbed at the reddening mark.

“It’s open!” She called out, pretty sure the person outside would be one of their number.

Sure enough, Bow peeked his head around the door, beaming at her as he revealed two cups held in his right hand. “Want some company?” Glimmer had asked him to get her a drink, but they had known each other long enough that he knew when she needed some space. He figured he could spend some time with the clearly troubled Adora, and then return to his wife.

“Of course,” Adora smiled back but it looked tired. She moved from the window and sat, cross legged, on the floor. Bow joined her and passed the cup full of steaming purple liquid to her. She raised her eyebrow at the sweet smelling concoction.

“Apparently it’s what’s popular here. Some sort of heated fruit juice, I figured we may as well give it a try.” They clinked cups together before both taking a sip. It was surprisingly delicious, tasting vaguely like berries and some spices they couldn’t quite place. “Not bad.”

They didn’t talk for a while, just sipping their drinks. It was Bow who broke the silence. “So, how you feeling about seeing all these people you grew up with?”

“Don’t you mean fought against?” 

“Adora, I know that it’s been a long time, but I remember that you lived a life before us and those people were all a part of that. The people from the bar, Catra, they all mean something to you. It would be like me denying the fact I have brothers. I don’t see them for years at a time but growing up with them helped me become who I am.” His big, brown eyes looked at her with such care that Adora worried she might cry.

“It’s just…I don’t know. Confusing, I guess? The last time I saw any for them we were enemies, and now they’re all here together and I don’t know them any more. All the hate, and the violence should be what I think of when I look at Catra but that was such a small part of our lives, and mostly I just want to know what happened to my best friend in all this time.” She looked at him and chewed her lip, as though he would chastise her. “I shouldn’t feel that way. She hurt us all, I still have the scars to prove it.”

“I don’t think that there’s a right way to feel about this.” He was pretty sure that Glimmer would say the opposite, which was why he had come by himself. 

He loved his wife, but over the years he had noted that she had become less warm, less forgiving of people’s mistakes. She was still very much the girl he had married, but with a harder, harsher edge. The rest of them had mellowed in peace and he couldn’t pin point the reason why she hadn’t. Sometimes they talked about it, as gently as possible, and Glimmer would reveal her frustrations with still working for her mother and her desire to learn more magic that her father wouldn’t show her (for her own good he said, but Glimmer had never liked to be coddled). Once, she had suggested going straight to Shadow Weaver if her father would not show her what she wanted to know, but he had talked her out of it. It was bad enough that the old crone still haunted the hall’s of the southern annex of the palace, they didn’t need to be bringing her further into their lives.

Thoughts of Shadow Weaver only deepened his concerns about Adora. He knew that she kept a careful distance from her old guardian, but as big as Brightmoon was, their paths sometimes crossed, and it seemed to him that no matter the passage of time, the sorceress was still far too interested in her former ward. He never raised the issue, but was careful to keep watch over the other woman after any such encounters. Shadow Weaver was a cancer that Brightmoon kept contained, but she was all too eager to spread her poison if people got too close. Thankfully, Glimmer had been keeping away from her for the last few years, allowing him to become less vigilant.

“I know you’re right. It’s just…seeing Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio was a big shock. They all look so happy and relaxed, and they have a business and children.” Her voice disappeared for a moment and he thought she had simply run out of steam. He was surprised when she continued, albeit in a much quieter voice. “We all thought Kyle would die in the war, you know? He was always so small and weak; afraid of everything. He could barely fight. I still don’t know why Shadow Weaver left him on my team, to teach me humility I guess.” Her eyes were very far away and he reached out a hand and took one of hers. 

“I know we were all child soldiers, but it wasn’t the same there as it was for all of you. Even as young as she was Frosta had a choice. You all had a choice, and you got to grow up with people who cared. Imagine what it must be like to grow up and think you will die as soon as you step out into battle, because that’s what everybody tells you. Now, seeing him looking healthy and cared about and so very alive, I just feel like I helped hurt him when we were kids.” Bow couldn’t help but notice that though she had mentioned Catra, she was not talking about her and it was equally clear that she was at the heart of Adora’s tumultuous emotional state.

“I’m sure none of them feel that way Adora, if they ever really did.” He released her hand and started to stand, they were meeting with Catra and some of the council this afternoon and he would need to return to Glimmer. “Maybe you can ask them later, at the meeting?”

“Maybe.” Maybe not.  
_____________________

Blood boiling, Glimmer paced around the room she shared with Bow. She had asked him to go and get her a hot drink and was using his absence to let out all of the frustration she felt at what had happened in the council meeting earlier. Sparks flew around her, almost shattering the mirror on the small desk in the corner. She pulled back, taking a deep breath, before she destroyed anything and made it obvious that she had contravened one of the ‘laws’ of this place.

Laws! She let out a growl and slumped onto the bed, pounding the mattress with her fist. Laws, what a ludicrous thing to suggest that this place had laws; upheld by a war criminal no less. Oh, so they couldn’t use magic but that animal could walk free? Regardless of what she had done to her, or Bow or the whole of Brightmoon? This was all clearly the smoke screen she had suspected all along! Why couldn’t the others see that? 

Sure, the others had been shocked when Catra had walked into the room, and Glimmer had been reassured to feel the others pull up their magic at her back, but after the meeting ended, the others had seemed content to wait for more information. They had been promised a meeting with the former second in command of the Horde, under the supervision of the council, but how could any of them be trusted if they were working with Catra? Hell, they were probably all working for her, the council nothing but an elaborate ruse to cover the fact that they were living in a dictatorship.

Thoughts rolling through her head, she was spiralling and knew that she would get short shrift from any of the others if she tried to talk about this. They would just tell her to be patient; that they should wait to see what pack of lies they were told late today by the Horde scum. She loved the other members of the Alliance like family, but they were all bleeding hearts. Even Adora, who had been raised in the crucible of a war machine, was too willing to trust things on face value.

She reached for her tracker pad, casting her eyes to the door just to be sire that Bow was nowhere to be seen, and typed in an access code that only she knew. The screen lit up, searching for a signal before connected to the person still residing in Brightmoon. Connection came swiftly, a dark face filling the screen and Glimmer walked into the bathroom and locked the door, keeping her voice low.  
___________________

The group found themselves taken back to the bar of the former Horde cadets, apparently called Liberty, by a much quieter Scorpia. Double Trouble, the pale green skinned lizard from the council was also accompanying them, to act as mediator, though Glimmer was unconvinced that they weren’t just there to build numbers against the Alliance. Double Trouble did intrigue her though, they were clearly a lizard but their skin seemed smooth, lacking scales, and their features were softer and more human than many of the lizard-kin she had seen before. Perhaps they were indigenous to the desert and didn’t leave it? It was certainly something to ponder, but right now her mind was fixed on the debacle that was about to take place.

Violet eyes moved over to the other princesses, all of whom wore pensive expressions. It was rare that they were not all talking, sharing their thoughts, even in the height of battle. Today though, there was a definite pall over them. It reflected her own mood and reassured her that they did understand the seriousness and danger inherent in meeting with the Horde scum. She had initially been reticent to meet at the bar, assuming it would be a trap. It had been Double Trouble who had reassured her that it was because the bar was essentially an open space that they would allow all parties to feel like they could leave at any time. She wasn’t sure she bought that, but at least they were not flanked by soldiers. Between this mornings meeting and now, just a handful of hours later, Glimmer had gone from rage to grim determination as they finally reached their destination.

Unlike the previous night, the large curtains that enclosed the bar had been tied back, making the bar a collection of tables exposed to the square. It was open and airy, the square devoid of any other life. It was clearly an area of the city that was largely nocturnal, which was another justification for meeting here. The council chambers had felt too confined, any chance at an attack and they would be caught. Glimmer looked around for any possible hidden attackers, noticing that Adora was doing the same, but there was nothing to see. Ideally she would have transported herself to each rooftop just to be sure but this ridiculous ‘law’ against magic meant she couldn’t without dooming this already cursed meeting and she was sure that they were not going to be the ones to make this meeting a disaster. Give Catra enough rope, Shadow Weaver had said, and she always hangs herself. 

As though thinking of her conjured the cat woman, she walked into the square from another walkway and made her way towards the large table that had been formed in the middle of the space from pushing a few smaller ones together, and throwing a cloth of bright colours over them. All eyes watched the figure of the former Force Captain swagger her way to the table. Her movements were self assured, as they had always been, but the way she held her shoulders and kept her head high spoke of age and strength that had been absent from her adolescent self. Glimmer stared down a rival, an enemy, while Adora found herself devouring more information about her oldest friend.

Adora had seen Catra march into the council room, now she watched her movements which were more fluid, not relaxed but more akin to how she had flowed around the Fright Zone when they were small. Her changed body, broader shouldered, longer limbed and carrying more muscle seemed more purposeful, almost dangerous with the ease that she moved through the space and poured into one of the chairs on the side closest to the stage. Adora noticed Scorpia perk up and a small smile bloom on her face as she too watched Catra move to the table. A strange, calcified shard of jealousy pricked the blond’s heart at the soft look.

During the war she had seen the giant scorpion woman constantly at Catra’s side, dwarfing her and offering protection and friendship. Her belief in the magicat had been unwavering then and clearly still was. Often, alone in her room in Brightmoon during the war, she would find herself replaying their interactions. It was not unusual for her to daydream about Catra turning to her and laying down her weapons, agreeing to finally join the rebellion. Those ‘what ifs’ had been a torture, and faded as their conflict had gone on. Sometimes, she would fantasise about what was going on between Scorpia and Catra and she would hate them, and herself, and feel dirty, pushing those thoughts away. Now, confronted by them as grown women, she found herself searching for any sign that they were together now. Scorpia’s reaction certainly suggested it.

Why did she still care? The past was another country that she should have moved on from years ago.

Getting to the table, Double Trouble and Scorpia moved to flank Catra, who had stood to greet them. This small respect was enough to leave Glimmer taken aback. It lacked the distain she remembered. Glimmer had already told the others to spread themselves around when they got here. Adora and Mermista sat on either side of her, while the others fanned out behind, not far from the table but enough to make sure that they would be able to stamp down any danger.

“Attendees, we are here in order to clear the air between the Alliance and the former second in command of the Horde forces, and current chief of Oasis police, Catra. Princess Glimmer is to act as the nominated spokesperson for the Alliance, while Catra will speak for herself. Councillor Scorpia and myself will stop in as necessary, as Princess Glimmer may also call others to ask pertinent questions.” Double Trouble, it seemed, was a confident orator who oozed confidence.

“We agree to talk.” Glimmer made sure her voice was authoritative, though it was starkly clear that they had not agreed to listen. Catra only nodded in confirmation, it seemed she would not volunteer anything she wasn’t asked for.

“We would ask that all sides attempt to remain civil, and remember that this is not a witch hunt.” Double Trouble could already sense the bottled up hostility in the pink haired Princess.

Glimmer sat tall in her seat, well as tall as she could. She refused fold her arms, instead resting her hands on the table top, fists clenched in a sign of dominance. Just a reminder that these were her weapons and that she could call up magic whenever she wanted if things went sideways. She was surprised that Catra sat with her arms hanging by her sides behind the table, her own weapons out of sight.

“Let’s get this over with then. We don’t believe that she,” I finger was jabbed in Catra’s direction. “Isn’t running the council. We know her, we fought her and there is no way she is simply looking after law and order in the city. She was power mad!” Glimmers voice rose steadily until it sat just below a shout.

“You don’t know me, Princess.” Catra’s words were low and measured, surprising everyone that she had spoken and that she had not called Glimmer ‘Sparkles’ as she always had to ignite her ire. “You haven’t seen me in a decade. I don’t know about you, but I grew up in that time.” Though soft there was an edge to the words.

“You’re a snake, there is no way you ‘changed’. Adora told us what happened in the First Ones ship. You expect us to believe that you took over a gang, grew it until you were almost running this place and then…what…decided that wasn’t for you?” If looks could kill, Glimmer’s would have melted though the table as she spat the words.

“You can believe what you want. I came here today to answer questions. All you seem to be here to do is spout accusation. If you’re mind is already made up, why waste my time? I have work to do.” Catra splayed her hands on the table and started to push herself away. DT stayed her movement by placing their hand on her thigh. She lowered herself back into the seat and clasped one hand over her arm in a pose Adora recognised as comforting herself.

Realising that the meeting would end before it started, Glimmer started to fire questions about the last ten years at the other woman. They were delivered with accusations and mostly just wanted her to accept culpability for all of the things she had done during the war. It was curious to Adora that Glimmer still carried so much anger towards Catra after all these years, but in the absence of Hordak or a real defeat of the Fright Zone, perhaps this was a sore that had been festering for her over the years.

Voices rose, Catra trying to explain herself but being cut off or called a liar. Bow rested his hand on Glimmer’s shoulder to try to calm her and she shrugged him off dismissively, never taking her eyes off of Catra. A half hour passed with nothing getting resolved or explained; simply Glimmer getting more frustrated and Catra visibly tamping down her own growing rage. 

____________________

Backing out of the kitchen, Kyle manoeuvred the heavily laden tray of refreshments out to the main floor. He didn’t often have to wait tables in the bar anymore, people came to hear him sing and eat Rogelio’s food, they had enough customers to be able to employ other people for that. The slim man took great care not to let the bowls and plates clatter as he moved, conscious of the seriousness of the meeting being held here. It was why he had been pressed into service, in order to keep this between people who knew the situation and could be trusted. 

As he got closer he could hear the angry words move from barely controlled shouts, to hissed words and then petter out at his presence. By the time he was laying the platter on the table, there was a tense silence around him that made the hair on the back of his neck rise and reminded him too much of growing up always surrounded by danger and hostility. He had always bee too fragile for the world he grew up in, and even now his hand began to tremble as he unloaded the tray. The soothing touch of a furred tail came up and stroked along his wrist, letting him know that even though she may not have taken her glowering eyes off of the pink haired woman in front of her, Catra was aware of his distress. The touch was fleeting but he felt calmed by it. 

As he looked up from placing down the last plate, ready to head back and collect another, he caught Adora watching him and knew that she had seen the brief act of affection. He smiled shyly at this woman who had once been his idol and was now looking at him with a mystified expression. She smiled back, clearly uncertain if she should, while everybody else was so stern. 

Kyle hustled back to the kitchen, where he sidled up to Rogelio and rose onto tip-toe to press a kiss against a scaly cheek. Rogelio made a low rumble in his chest and continued to load the last of the food onto the second tray. Kyle didn’t flinch when a hand settled on the back of his neck, slipping through his hair and he leaned into the touch. Lonnie rested her forehead against his shoulder and the three of them just existed in that moment.

In the kitchen the children were making themselves snacks, keeping their fathers company while Lonnie was supposed to be overseeing proceedings, having only snuck away for a moment after seeing Kyle was riled up. The sound of giggling coming from across the kitchen new all three adults eyes, seeing Digby trying to wipe source on his sister who was making a disgusted face. Somewhere in the kitchen Yarsha was napping, Rogelio had last seen her curled up by a bag of potatoes.

Kyle bent to pick up the now finished tray, but a pair of warm hands pulled his away. He looked up and Lonnie gave him a cheeky wink as she whisked the tray away from him and made for the door. Shaking his head, feeling very cared for, he moved front of her to hold open the door; he didn’t need to, but he wanted to. She thanked him softly and started to walk back to the odd group who had spread out in the room to eat, far away from Catra, Scorpia and Double Trouble who all remained at the meeting table. Kyle held the door for a moment longer, enjoying the view of Lonnie walking away in her uniform, almost missing when a small, dark blur whizzed passed his knees and out into the room. By the time he registered what happened it was too late to grab the kitten who was already half way across the room and streaking ahead of Lonnie.

Kyle stood, paralysed, he didn’t know whether to run out and grab her, or hang back fo fear of causing more chaos. His mind whirling, the decision was taken out of his hands as he watched her careen into Catra’s chair, as the rest of the room noticed her presence mere moments before. Not waiting to see what would happen, now that she was safe with Catra, he sloped back into the kitchen and cast a guilty look at Rogelio, who just shrugged and grumbled noncommittally. It’d be fine.

Catra was the first one to realise something was wrong. She hated that Kyle had been so distressed by the situation, in truth she had taken Glimmer’s bait and hated herself for it. She had promised herself that she wouldn’t be drawn into an argument, that she would be able to keep her cool and stay calm. She had worked so hard over the last eight years to manage her temper and not lash out, and it felt like with a few well placed jobs the sparkly monster had managed to bring her right back to that wicked little animal she had been. When he had dashed back to the kitchen, she had given Lonnie a nod to make sure he was ok. 

When the door to the kitchen squeaked open, she shot a quick look and wasn’t surprised to see Lonnie bringing back the rest of the food while Kyle hung back. When they were kids she would have perceived his actions to be weak and hated him for it, now she knew that it was alright to feel vulnerable. She turned her attention back to Scorpia and DT, speaking in low voices about where this was going when her ears shot up. Lonnie hadn’t reached the table yet but something was moving towards them with tremendous speed. 

Reaching down, she caught the fast little blur, and leaned over the edge of her chair to look down at the kitten. A loud sigh left her lips as she realised that all the sound in the room had died, save for Lonnie putting the tray down. The Alliance members had all moved away to the far side of the room with their refreshments and been talking quietly, but animatedly, while shooting glances towards her. Now there was only silence. This was the very last thing she had wanted!

“Ra, up! I tireded.” Small hands reached up, and any annoyance she felt at the child running out disappeared in the face of her big, drooping eyes and grabby little fingers.

“Fuzzy-butt,” she reached down and drew the small body onto her lap, where Yarsha began to nuzzle her throat trying to get comfortable for a nap. “Hey, you can’t stay here. Ra is working.” She ran a hand across the child’s back to sooth her.

Big, tired eyes, gazed up as her and began to fill with tears as her lower lip trembled. They were on the precipice of a full out toddler meltdown, it seemed. When she had gone to work that morning, Yarsha had been more clingy than usual, and now this, made Catra think that perhaps she was coming down with something. How could she send her way when she was looking at that face? She looked over to DT, she knew Scorpia would already be cooing at the sight of the kid, and got an approving nod. 

“Shush, everything’s ok. You can stay. You gonna take a nap with me, huh?” Just like that the tears tapered off and the little ball of fur went limp against her chest, trying to get comfortable.

Double Trouble leaned closer in their chair, “Having the little one here might help them to calm down and actually listen…”

“Children are not pawns!” The words left her mouth as a growl that was far louder than she intended and carried across the room, she was sure. She looked down and saw disapproving eyes and a pout directed at her. “Sorry, Yar-Yar.” The words were whispered and accompanied by a kiss to a nearby ear.

The princesses had slowly begun to move back to the large table, moving gingerly like Catra was holding an explosive and not a two and a half year old child. She heard the scrape of chairs moving, but made a point not to look up at the sound, instead keeping her gaze on Yarsha as she fought against sleep. 

“What’s wrong?” She spoke too low for any of the humans to hear but twitchy ears let her know the kitten had.

“Dis is ouchy, Ra. I wanna go sleep.” Claws jabbed at her padded jerkin, really more of a tactical vest, and started to pick at the buckles. Catra didn’t even need to think about it as she unhooked the vest and drew it over her head careful not to jostle Yarsha. She discarded it on the floor beside her, and drew the little girl closer.

Yarsha purred delightedly and nestled her face into Catra’s throat, as she melted into her. One small hand came up to grasp the collar of her shirt, while the other wrapped around her neck. Yarsha curled her legs into the bigger cat’s body and finally her tail coiled around her Ra’s forearm as her eyes got to heavy to hold open. She had never once even glanced at the half dozen or so new people. Catra felt her completely relax and lowly purred to send her over the edge, keeping her tail wrapped arm firmly pressed to her back to stop her from falling.

Only once tiny snores began to emerge from below her chin, did Catra look up and stare down the group across the table. Perfuma, Catra knew all their names she just chose never to use them, was looking at the two of them the same way that Scorpia did, as was Bow. If their eyes were any wider they would be heart shaped. The other two princesses just seemed bewildered and she was’t sure that the pirate was even aware of the small child. Adora couldn’t pull her eyes away from the kitten, she looked…lost was the only word that Catra could think of.

But Glimmer? Glimmer was still glowering at them both, her hands still twitching in that way they had since the meeting started. Like she wanted to reach out and choke the magicat, child be damned. There was no softening around her eyes, and if Catra strained her ears enough she was pretty sure that she would be able to hear the sound of her teeth grinding.

“So, meetings over then, just like that? You wheel in an infant and we go without our questions answered? I thought you were low…” Thankfully Glimmers voice though harsh, was not a shout, and Yarsha never stirred.

“I may be low, but I would never use a child for that! All of the children here are loved, orphans or otherwise. We all know what it’s like to be used by adults, why would I even consider it?” She’d thought her words would come out angry, but instead she just felt sad.

“The meeting can certainly continue,” DT slot into the conversation smooth as silk. “The child is asleep, and as long as we can keep a civil tongue in our heads and an appropriate volume to our words, then why should we stop?” Thus far things had been very far from civil or quiet. “Perhaps I should take over answering your questions? Catra, or course, will contribute as necessary. Might I suggest that Princess Glimmer also take a break and allow somebody else to take the lead, just to allow cooler heads to prevail?” Double Trouble’s word’s were too smooth, too polite, to possibly be able to say no to. 

Mermista raised her hand, taking control of their side, as Glimmer sat back in her chair with her arms folded and her knee jumping under the desk. Catra couldn’t relax either but that was more a survival instinct than fear, at least that’s what she told herself as she unconsciously took a sniff at the top of the little ones head. 

“So, like, are you going to tell us why she,” Mermista might be sardonic, but she was always able to cut to the chase. “Should be trusted? Because right now, we think that she’s running the show and all this is just a front.” Glimmers eyes swivelled to her right and she fixed Mermista with a look that screamed ‘don’t tell them that!’ And, truthfully, it was all Catra could do not to snigger at her. It was about time somebody put their cards on the table.

“How much do you want to tell them?” Double Trouble turned to her, waiting for her reply. They weren’t the most tactful person but they cared about her enough to ask.

“Everything relevant.” Because Tace wasn’t relevant for them, though she was vital to her, and DT knew that.

“Everything it is…”  
____________________

Kyle had looked so worried. It reminded Adora of when Shadow Weaver used to walk into their bunk when they were small, although Kyle had never been the focus of her ire he had often cried and more than once wet himself in fear. He was sensitive then and clearly even as this much more self assured seeming man, he still was. She had always thought that Bow and Kyle would have been friends in other circumstances. It didn’t escape her notice that Catra stroked out her tail to him, and the little girl that lived in her bristled. Catra had never reached out to anyone but her.

What was wrong with her? She needed to focus on the meeting, she was a grown woman. Of course Catra had changed, they were all almost thirty. With Kyle gone, the Alliance members grabbed some food and moved to the far side of the bar to talk over events. They were clearly getting nowhere and Adora sat with a plate full of small pastries and sandwiches, thinking forlornly of Entrapta, the princess they had all let down. Groaning softly, she stuffed foot into her mouth and kept quiet while the others shouted at each other in whispers. Glimmer was getting nowhere and they were all getting frustrated with the stalemate.

As she ate, Adora kept casting glances back towards the meeting table, noticing that Catra did not eat though she did sip from a mug that had been placed in front of her. It was then that her attention was drawn to Lonnie emerging from the Kitchen, holding a tray while Kyle watched her come back to the table. Were they all so unbearable that he needed to hide from them?

Just as Adora turned back to her team, ready to try to step in and rally them, a dark blur caught the corner of her eye and she was once again staring at Catra. The small, fast moving thing, was at her side in a moment, rushing passed Lonnie. Adora felt herself tense at the intrusion, hand moving to where her bracer should be and coming away empty. Nobody else had noticed so far, still too caught up in what they should do to get the confession that they demanded. She was able to watch as Catra leant down to the small creature and pulled it into her lap.

It was a kitten. It took her mind a minute to process what she was seeing. A small, tortoiseshell kitten was now held in Catra’s arms and marking under her jaw with intent. Her dark brown, almost black, base fur was highlighted with large patches of the red-brown fur of the older magicat. The little one had one had a particularly large pair of lighter patches on her face, one around her right eye and the other her nose and mouth, though the blond couldn’t see the colour of her eyes. She saw Catra brig her hand up into the girls jet black hair and them exchange soft words. 

The chatter around Adora started to fade, but all her attention was on the kitten. Hand’t Scorpia said that there weren’t any orphans younger than seven? Wasn’t that what Perfuma had said? What did that mean for this tiny ball of fur that sent pangs of longing through her chest as she thought of the kitten she had found in a box twenty-five years ago? She saw Double Trouble say something to the older woman and then everyone heard her response.

“Children are not pawns!” It was a growl that was much more familiar than her attempt at civility. The child tensed and Catra was once again shushing with soft words. 

Adora couldn’t stop her feet from taking her back to the meeting table, vaguely registering that the others were also walking back with her. She only had eyes for the two magicats. Catra never looked up, just trading words too quiet to hear with the child. It was a shock when Catra loosened her uniform and pulled the larger piece over her head and to see the kitten take its place snuggled up to her chest with her tail wrapped around a furry forearm. It was another reminder of how baby Catra would curl up with her in their bunk when they were small and lonely. 

Everybody was quiet, watching the odd spectacle of this woman they thought of as a war criminal, cradle a very small child. Large and small purrs twined together to fill the space until the latter morphed into small snores and Catra finally deigned to look at them. Adora was mesmerised, feeling as though she was under an enchantment. If she had needed any confirmation that Catra was changed, this was it. She had always been the first to be mean to the younger cadets and sworn that only fools would have children. 

“So, meetings over then, just like that? You wheel in an infant and we go without our questions answered? I thought you were low…” Adora’ eyes snapped away from the soft sight in front of her to the seething woman at her side, feeling shocked by her attitude to the sight of a child.

“I may be low, but I would never use a child for that! All of the children here are loved, orphans or otherwise. We all know what it’s like to be used by adults, why would I even consider it?” Adora felt a lump form at the back of her throat at the melancholy sound of the Catra’s voice, and the truth of her words. 

Around her the other members of the Alliance agreed with Double Trouble’s assessment that the show could go on with some adjustments, like Glimmer piping down. Adora was relieved, the idea of raised voices waking that baby up made her chest hurt. She knew what a frightened kitten sounded like first hand and never wanted to hear it again. Mermista did what Glimmer should have, cut to the point of the meeting and stayed calm. 

“How much do you want to tell them?” It was interesting to watch how Double Trouble interacted with Catra, they were clearly in command but still deferred to her under the circumstances. Adora couldn’t understand how the others hadn’t noticed that both Scorpia and Double Trouble were clearly in control of this meeting, and not the former Force Captain. It seemed obvious to her, even before the child arrived.

“Everything relevant.” There was a flintiness in Catra’s mismatched eyes as she spoke, clear and concise. Double Trouble obviously knew what that meant, and Adora found herself leaning forward din her seat as they began to speak.

“Everything it is…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's ready to travel back in time?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's go back 8 years and have our hearts ripped out, shall we?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> information between **** are flashback scenes.
> 
> I hadn't planned to post this, or even write it this weekend, but Tace wanted to come out so 7K+ later here we are.  
> Hope it lives up to expectation.

“How much do you want to tell them?” Double Trouble turned to her, waiting for her reply. They weren’t the most tactful person but they cared about her enough to ask.

“Everything relevant.” Because Tace wasn’t relevant for them, though she was vital to her, and DT knew that.

“Everything it is…”

While DT started talking, Catra buried her nose in Yarsha’s sweet smelling hair and let her mind drift back to that day eight years ago.

*****

If the heat didn’t kill her then the itchiness might, sharp claws frantically scratched at her side where the sand had managed to get beneath her fur. The young magicat looked at her team who all seemed perfectly at ease as they walked deeper and deeper into the heart of the desert. They were a long way from the market now, all loaded with plenty of water and food in case they were to get stuck out here in the heat. Catra grumbled profanities under her breath about each of them. Double Trouble, the newest member of their group, laughed uproariously when they heard, making her glower even more.

Huntara had been out in the desert for almost a decade and was well used to the extreme temperatures and the sand. A large brimmed brown hat, which had been the subject of a lot of teasing from the young feline, protected her head, ears and neck from the beating sun and she pulled a travois behind her laden with supplies. Looking between the hulking purple skinned woman and Scorpia, walking jauntily, smile spread across her face and humming, Catra felt envious of their strength. Sure she’d shot up a few inches in the last couple of years, a growth spurt that had taken her by surprise, considering she had been the same small stature since she turned fourteen. She was still a ways off of Scorpia’s height, but a good head taller than she had been.

When it had started to happen, she had chalked up her clothes getting too tight to her more active life as a gang master and eating anything she could get her hands on. That had explained her thicker biceps and legs, but not the broadening of her shoulders or the way her leggings covered less and less of her calves. She soon realised that she was, indeed, growing. And not just taller. Her body was changing in other ways. 

When she had been in the Horde with Adora and Lonnie, she had watched as the human girls’ bodies changed. They had got taller, curvier and grown breasts and started to get their own fur. She had been admonished, more than once, for looking at the other girls in the showers, but it had been fascinating and as a child she had wondered if they would become as furry as her. She had grown too, and her chest had grown a little but she didn’t look like Adora. She was always very conscious of the fact that she could never measure up to Adora in anything she did, even her body was defective. Or so it seemed.

Yet, in the desert and turning nineteen her body had decided to metamorphose. She still didn’t have particularly large breasts, apparently that was not a cat thing. What she did have, was greater musculature, still wiry but much more defined, broader shoulders and her torso also lengthened, increasing her already impressive agility. The fur across her body also grew, at first she was disgusted. Throughout her childhood Shadow Weaver had made sure to tell her she was nothing but a mongrel, a filthy animal she had to put up with, and the longer, thicker fur reminded her of those words. Thinking about her fur brought her back to the present as she continued to scratch.

“You doing all right there, Wildcat?” Scorpia had sidled over to her, large pack perched on her shoulders and long braid hanging over her shoulder.

Scorpia had also changed while they had been out here. She dressed similarly to Catra and Huntara, in short pants, sleeveless shirts and a vest but all of hers were in bright, pastel colours and her hair had been allowed to grow and soften her face. Catra reached up and tucked a stray strand of white hair behind the scorpioni’s ear, getting a soft smile in response.

In the early days, and it was still hard to believe that they had lived in the Waste for almost two years and gone from Horde deserters to gang lords to co-leaders of a united town, Catra and Scorpia had tried to be together. Catra wasn’t sure, even now, if she would call it dating. Scorpia had been caring and supportive and her love had shone out with every word or action, once Catra let herself see it. But Catra had still been too jagged and broken to build anything permanent or that could last. They’d exchanged kisses and slept together, both having their first time with somebody they at least trusted, but after just three months they both realised that they weren’t what each other needed. Scorpia was too soft, Catra too harsh in return.

It had ended on surprisingly good terms, Scorpia had been sweet and accepting while Catra…Catra had been kind. It meant that now they were still close, but Scorpia no longer looked at her like she hung the moon, and Catra could be pretty sure that she wasn’t going to have her personal space invaded at any given opportunity.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just sand in my fur itches like a bitch. I hope we find something out here soon.” Mismatched eyes scanned the barren landscape, looking for any trace of where the peculiar signal that they had received could have come from.

A week earlier some of the more tech savvy Horde deserters, who had been peppered throughout the Crimson Waste and were now together under her banner, had picked up a feint signal coming from deep in the desert. It was intermittent, stopping for days at a time only to return in long, low pulses. They had been searching for a signal to hack into the Fright Zone, a way to piggy-back into the fortress and sow dissent a little at a time.

With news of the signal, old rumours of abandoned ruins way out in the desert sand began to spread. Only old timers seemed to have any veracity to their words. Huntara had heard about them before, but chalked them up to heat visions (mirages, Catra had learned they were called). Catra had seen a lot of weird alien things while scavenging First Ones tech for Hordak, and also while hunting She-ra. Rumours of ruins, strange signals and isolated places all screamed First Ones to her. After all, that ship she’d abandoned Adora in had been one of their’s.

It had been decided that it was worth taking a look. As they had brought the various factions of the Waste together, sheer violence and force of will was not enough to keep it running. Bartering with the outside world was becoming a fact of life - new (old) technology could bring a pretty penny with intermediaries who might be willing to deal with the Horde. It wasn’t ideal, but making a new society was a messy affair where sometimes principles had to be put aside for practicality.

The group had already spent two nights in the desert, bundled together in one small tent. As hot and arid as the Waste was in the day, the nights were glacial. Conserving body heat was imperative, no matter how uncomfortable it made Catra. There was only ever one person she had felt comfortable sleeping beside, and Adora was a million miles away and a hundred years in the past. So, as well as the discomfort of itchy sand, cloying heat and bitter cold, Catra was more tired than she’d like as they trekked through the emptiness.

Double Trouble held the small, boxy device that periodically emitted a beep as it caught the signal. They were heading in the right direction, if the increase in the strength and regularity of the beacon was anything to go by. The device had a small screen with an illuminated dot that gave them an indication of which direction to head but no more. The slick lizard had been a fairly new addition to their group. They had appeared one day in the shanty town, disguised as a Horde soldier - only to try to pick the wrong pocket and het caught by Catra. It’s hard to trick a trickster. Their ability to shape shift had proved invaluable since, allowing them to take the characters of merchants and traders to be their link with the outside world. Without them, things would not run almost as smoothly. Within months they had become part of the team running the place. It would be easy to distrust them, that ability to be anyone and hear anything making many people uneasy in their presence. 

Catra had felt that way only briefly, finding in DT a kindred spirit. As caustic and mean as herself and able to give as good as they got. They were a necessary foil for her, a living scratching post who could endure her barbs, whether them with barely a reaction, meaning she could be cordial more easily to others, like Scorpia. It was shocking how easy diplomacy was, when you didn’t scream at the other side because you’d already run through that scenario with the best actor you know.

“Yo! DT! Any clue if we’re getting close or not?” She raised her voice and called out to them clearly frustrated.

“No more than every other time you’ve bellowed at me, oh fearless leader.” Mockery dripped from the words as a wide, toothy mouth formed into a smirk.

“Grrrr!” Catra kicked at the sand, needing to distract herself, suddenly breaking into a sprint. Pounding across the sand on all fours, shocking Scorpia with the suddenness of her actions and moving passed Double Trouble in a blur.

She had always been fast, but her longer frame ate up the sand at lighting speed; arms stretching out and body coiling only to spring forward on her powerful legs. Sand spat out behind her, displaced by her movements as she got further and further away from the others until she could just make them out when she turned her head. She kept moving as she glanced behind and then the ground was no longer under her feet. The bottom dropped out of her world and she was falling, twisting her body in the air by instinct, spend bringing arms and legs together as her eyes met the ground and processed how long till she would hit. Just in time it all came together letting her hit the rocky ground in a crouch, absorbing the worst of the impact. Her feet ached, and her palms were scraped across the tender pads there, but she was fine.

Catra stood and stretched out her back, loosening the tenseness brought on by the threat of danger. She looked up, and up, seeing the cliff face that she had toppled down. It was sheer and at least two hundred feet, almost certainly a near fatal injury for anyone else who toppled over the edge. Still looking up she pulled out a communicator and called Scorpia, warning the others to be on their guard and that they would need the rope that Huntara had packed. Getting confirmation that she had been heard, she turned to survey her surroundings.

The area was vast, surrounding her on all sides. The cliffs around her had a gentle curve and every wall was tall and smooth. It was almost as though a giant had stamped down a foot in the desert and left an impression. There was sand on the ground, but it was sparse and interspersed with large, exposed rocks and gravel. Catra felt herself drawn over to the far side, where a pile of jagged boulders seemed to be stacked up against one of the cliffs. Catra’s mind whirled as she realised that they would make for a far easier escape out of the place. She pulled out the coms again and instructed them to make their way around the edge of the crater.

After walking for long enough that she could now make out the sound of the others up top, she reached the boulder wall. Now, on closer inspection, it wasn’t a pile of rocks. It was clearly a landslide. These rocks had fallen haphazardly from higher on the rock wall to cover something. The smell of the desert as dry and earthy, the scent coming from around the rocks was metallic and mechanical. Something was being concealed. Her gaze sharpened, even as Huntara began to lower a rope, to something glinting close to the landslide.

Walking away from there the others had started to climb down, she crouched in the dirt and reached out a hand to dust away the sand t hat concealed the glinting object. Claws extended, she slid them beneath the edge of the metal sheet and flicked it up into her hand. Her eyes grew hard as she saw the familiar red, double wings of the Horde. The metal was tarnished and worn, clearly old and the metal had lost its colour in the sun but the symbol was unmistakable. Once upon a time, the Horde had been in this place. 

______________

Several hours passed as the group pitched their tent and set out camp in the centre of the crater where the ground was at its flattest. It was clear that this was the origin of the signal as the beeps on DT’s device were going crazy, to a point that they turned it off to save their sanity. Catra had shown them the scrap she had found and explained the scent change coming from the landslide. DT had been charged with camp, while the three women began to try to remove the large rocks, hoping to locate some kind of cave or craft.

Progress was slow, for each rock removed another was revealed. They took care not to move any rock that looked like it would cause a further landslide and crush them. Finally, sweat pouring off of them, the three diggers dragged themselves over to Double Trouble where they collapsed onto the ground and gratefully took a pull of water and a bag of rations. Catra’s claws ached from scrambling to gain purchase on the stones and her frustration was mounting again. She chewed silently at the sawdust-like food in her mouth and forced it down, taking another draw on her canteen.

Catra was the first to spring to her feet and move back to the wall, hauling almost frantically at stone after stone, looking for that one which would allow a glimpse at what lay beneath. This time it was DT who joined her, shifting their body into Huntara’s form and hauling rocks. They lacked the stamina of the actual Huntara, but could sustain a brisk pace for a little while as their own body was tricked into believing the muscle was real. 

They traded barbs at each other as they worked, falling into the rapport that they had developed. Catra was almost certain that the flamboyant shifter was interested in her, they were caustic and scathing towards her, as they were to everyone, but there was always a flirtatious edge in their interactions that she never noticed with the others. It was flattering to be desired, different to what Scorpia’s moon eyed devotion had been, and she flirted back but it meant nothing. Sure, Double Trouble was sexy and alluring, but Catra felt nothing real towards them beyond friendship. A part of her had started to wonder if perhaps she just wasn’t meant for love or relationships. Things hadn’t worked with Scorpia, and she couldn’t see feeling that way about anyone else. Anyone, except HER. But she couldn’t think about that.

A big haul sent her reeling back, boulder in her arms. She landed on her back and the rock hit her stomach, causing all the air to leave her lungs in a ‘oof’ of air. Double Trouble pulled the rock off of her and dragged her to her feet, now back in their familiar black clad form. 

“Look what you did, Kitten.” How she hated that nickname, and anyone else she would claw the tongue out of their mouth, but DT got away with a look.

Look Catra did. A large, dark, hole had been revealed. The boulder that had pinned her had dislodged others and rather than causing a further collapsed it had revealed only darkness. The aperture was still small, far too small for Huntara or Scorpia to enter, but Catra and DT were both lithe and wiry enough to fit through small spaces. Scorpia tried to dissuade them, siting the danger of further collapse and what could be lurking inside. 

“Scorp, we have to investigate. DT and I will take comms, rope and torches down there. You and Huntara wait up here, you can figure some way to keep the rocks from shifting.” She laid a reassuring hand on Scorpia’s shoulder. She didn’t have a death wish, not anymore, and needed her friend to know that. She noticed that DT looked apprehensive, but made no attempt to get out of going into the dark.

Equipped with water, torches and rope, they eased into the hole. Catra took the lead, her eyes able to adjust to the darkness almost instantly and letting her assess the area for any sign of danger. There was a small drop, just a couple of metres, but could have caused a nasty spill if they didn’t realise. She jumped down and then reached up to guide Double Trouble down with care. The tall blond flicked on a torch and illuminate a vast expanse of low ceilings and shimmering ground. Beginning to walk, the roof skimming across the top of Catra’s head, while Double trouble had to stoop, their feet clanged metallically and they shared a look.

Whatever they were walking on was a continuous sheet of metal. Not rock. Both lowered to their knees and ran their hands over the surface under the torchlight. It was cool to the touch and etched with razor thin grooves. They moved further into the darkness, dropping down at intervals to look for a way in. There was no way to even get a claw tip in any of the groves.

“What is this?” Double Troubles voice echoed around them eerily. 

“I have no idea.” Mechanical, no doubt, but too huge to be anything she had ever seen before. “But I can smell something weird, well, weirder, this way.” She led the way, DT at her heels.

They moved cautiously, the acrid smell of melted, scorched metal becoming more and more distinct. It was something she had smelt a lot in the Fight Zone when she and the others would sneak out to the foundry and watch the liquid metal be poured. Down here, in the narrow dark, it couldn’t mean anything good. 

Double Trouble moved the torch to their other hand and momentarily lit up the roof, revealing deep, thick gauges there. They cut trenches everywhere. Something else had been here. 

“Stay behind me.” Catra’s skin was prickly, her fur lifting.

“I had no intention to be anywhere else.” They tried for haughty but still sounded as shaken as she felt.

Clanging echoing around them was disorienting and she almost missed the twisted metal. She stopped just in time to prevent them from toppling downwards, reaching out her arm to stop DT, one fall a day was enough. She lay on her belly and took out her own torch, shuffling to the rolled and deformed edge, and peered down and down. The torchlight bounced off the interior, showing that the same irregular hole had been cut through another floor, and another, and another. Whatever this thing was it was big, going deep into the earth. It was reminiscent of the holding cells of the Horde, which Catra knew too well.

“We’re going to need that rope.” Catra took the coil that was held out and cinched it securely around one of the smooth imperfections that had been created by the intrusion. 

The feline swung down, swiftly moving to the bottom of the borehole. She tugged the line and DT slid down the cord that she pull taught. When their feet hit the ground, both torches were switched on as they looked around the place. It was devastated. The walls were covered in protruding wires where panels had been ripped off the walls and then roughly discarded on the floor. A pair of doors to their right had been brutally forced open, the corners peeled back like paper, allowing enough room for them to crawl through. On the other side they wished they hadn’t.

Row after row of coffin shaped boxed lined the large, hanger sized area. There were too many to count, reaching into the darkness beyond the reach of therein torches. Some had their covers pried off and discarded into the walkway, forcing them to step gingerly over them. Catra shone her torch into one of those and found a desiccated corpse, throat slit and the ancient remnants of rusty brown blood covering the insides of the metal box. The flesh had shrunk to the bones, mummifying the person inside. DT turned their face away, walking further into the dark and noting that the further they went, fewer of the boxed were missing lids, instead having the window at the top over the face of the inhabitant shattered and the faces if those inside bashed in leaving watered, obliterated faced.

Catra was rooted to the spot at the first box. They may not have been built as coffins, but that was what they had become. The petrified body in front of her had sharp teeth showing from receded gums and fur that still clung to every inch of the shrivelled flesh. Large ears, now leathery bracketed the face. Without conscious thought her hand reached out and softly touched the long claws that tipped the hand.

“Kitten, they’re all dead. Whoever broke in here didn’t want to leave any survivors.” DT could see how shaken Catra was and didn’t elaborate on how the others had died.

“They’re magicats, DT. I thought they were just a legend and I was some kind of throwback freak!” She punched her hand into the side of the pod, feeling instantly bad to have desecrated this place. “What did the Horde do?”

Double trouble rested their hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Nobody had ever seen a magicat, the name a think of folklore of a group of creatures who had been around with the first ones and disappeared around the same time. To be in the presence of so many bodies was humbling. Catra had her head in her hands, DT scanned their torch around the edge of the room.

Was that another door?

The shifter moved away, heading towards the newly revealed door. The area around it was blackened and gauged but the door was still intact. “Kitten, I think you should get over here!” Their call reverberated around the tomb.”

Catra’s head shot up and she pulled herself together, stalking over to where the tall form of the lizard was cast into silhouette. She saw the signs of the aggression that had been levelled at the wall around the door. It was impressive that this door had held, she wondered what was behind it.

She raised her hand to trace come symbols that had evaded the blasts and cuts. She wanted to know what they meant but they were as alien to her as the rest of the ship. Her palm rested against the cool metal, trailing down when a light blazed to life under her hand. She jerked away, looking at the rectangular panel fade and go dead again, looking like the rest of the wall around her. DT tried, placing their hand over the same spot and nothing happened, they even tried shifting into Catra’s form but the panel remained dark. They grasped Catra’s wrist and placed her hand back onto the panel which once again came to life.

This time, Catra did not pull away and a whirring noise began softly beside the door. The light changed from white to green and with a beep the doors began to pull apart. Catra took her hand away now, eyes wide and fixed on the space between. The doors continue to move sluggishly before a squealing grinding sound happened and they stopped. The gap between them was big enough to walk through and as they did, cool white lights flickered, obviously motion activated, around them. Both of them froze.

This room was smaller, filled with more of the boxes but there was little sign of disturbance here. There were, perhaps, a two hundred or so boxes here, nothing like the volume in the outer room. The biggest difference that they noticed from the doorway was that these were a range of sizes. Larger ones, like the ones in the main chamber, were arranged around the edge in a circular configuration, surrounding smaller and smaller ones. Neither of them wanted to move for fear of what they might find.

Slowly, as though she were afraid that her very presence would turn everything in the room to dust, she walked to the first box and peered inside. She fell to her knees and DT looked into the same window. Inside, sleeping peacefully, was a youthful figure. They looked like Catra, just as young and cat-like and the movement of their chest showing they were very much alive.

Catra crawled on her knees into the inner circle and moved to look into the window of a smaller box and a strangled sound escaped her throat as she looked into the face of a sleeping kitten. She had never seen another face that looked like her own, and within the space of minutes she had seen a corpse, a youth and now a child. It was almost more than her mind could take. The smallest containers were beside her, a dozen crib sized pods that held babies. Babies. 

“Kitten, there’s something wrong here.” What wasn’t wrong? Catra looked up and saw that DT was standing over one of the smaller pods and looking down with an inscrutable look on their face.

She joined them and saw that one of the pods was empty, its cover loosened and leaning against the side. There was no sign of the toddler that must have been inside, given the size. One of the kittens had been taken. Somebody had gotten into the room after all.

“How old were you when the Horde got you?” It was rare to hear anything like sympathy in the shifters voice.

“Really, really young.” Adora had found her in a box about to be discarded by Shadow Weaver.

“I think this might belong to you, kitten.”

________________

It took days to get more people to the crater. They had managed to scrape together a handful of vehicles that could manage the terrain and ferry more than a hundred children and youths back to the town. It had been surprising how keen the former gang members had been to lend a hand to save the children. Whether it was loyalty to Catra or just a need to help children, it was appreciated.

Only Catra and Double Trouble had spent any time in the mysterious subterranean place. When the time came to start waking the children, they led a few more of the smaller mercenaries down and started with the infants. The babies were removed from the pods and strapped to the torsos of the rescuers, most being removed two at a time. It took little time and then they moved on to the toddlers. What was clear was that, on removal, the children were still mostly asleep and easily manoeuvred without a fuss. By the afternoon of the first day, all of the youngest children had been ferried back to the town. While the others took a break up top, Catra stayed behind.

The magicat had not emerged from the chamber since she and DT discovered it four days before. She couldn’t drag herself away from these young people. Each time she had been left alone she had walked up to one box or another and just watched the sleeping faces of these orphans. Her kin. Some were light in colour, others mottled a handful of colours. She wished she could see their eyes. None of the younger children had woken enough to open their eyes and she wished she could see if any of them shared her heterochromia. 

It was the older youths that she spent most of her time watching. She was barely twenty, at least that’s what she thought, and it was clear that most of them were around her age. There weren’t many of these older youths, perhaps twenty older teens but at least they might have some answers. She’d found herself drawn to one girl in particular, who seemed to be the oldest. Her fur was black, shining purple when the light hit and her hair was woven into a myriad of tiny braids. Something about the sleeping girl called to her. Maybe it was the hope of meeting somebody who was old enough to give her some answers? 

It took another half a day to clear out the under tens and then all that was left were forty-five boxes containing the teens of various ages. It was decided that they would begin the last part of the evacuation in the morning. The older the child, the more they seemed to wake up when taken out of the pod, still confused and easily handle, but it had got progressively more difficult to them back to the surface. The hope was that the adolescents would be awake enough to give them some answers about this place, whatever it was.

Scorpia had tried to cajole her out of the hole over the com, worry evident in her voice but she had refused. There was obviously something very wrong with sleeping beside a graveyard, but she just couldn’t leave these children unprotected. It was clear that it had happened once, and she had been taken - that wouldn’t happen again. The first night she hadn’t slept, just haunting the room and looking in on every sleeping face, wondering who they were to her. Were any of these her brothers? Sisters? Cousins? Had her parents been out in that room? On the second night those questions had brought her to her knees and brought tears to her eyes that had run down her face in salty tracks, but at least she managed to sleep. 

This was the last night she would spend down here, and sleep was again out of her grasp. There were fewer people to check on, so she found herself looking at the walls. She had seen that there was a black screen, almost blending with the wall, on the first day but had been too preoccupied to explore. Now she approached and ran her hands over the area that jutted out underneath, light coming to life under them as they had with the door. She looked at all the button sized lights, seeing writing that she couldn’t decipher. She growled and punched down onto the board, jumping back when the screen flashed brightly.

Her eyes were transfixed to the scene playing over and over on the screen…

…Hooks grasped onto the join of the doors and they were pulled apart, the whining of motors like a defiant scream against the intrusion. They were no match for the hydraulics that cracked them apart. A helmeted Horde soldier walked through the opening and scanned the room, seeing children. They sheathed the knife that they held in their hand, even in the old footage clearly stained with blood spilled in the other room. The clank of their footsteps filled the audio as they walked between the pods, looking into smaller and smaller windows in a parody of her actions just days before. 

“Commander, we have found a room full of children. Shall we dispatch them like the adults before we start to bring up the tech?” The gruff voice was unfamiliar as it spoke into the communicator with somebody at the Horde.

“Kittens, not children, Force Captain. These are animals, invaders too stupid to wake when they landed here.” The voice was a boogeyman, the sound of terror that crawled up her spine as Shadow Weaver pondered the fate of innocents. Catra’s ears flattened to her head as she watched. “Bring me a small one. Let’s see if they have any worth, they could be useful attack animals with the claws and teeth. A small one, mind you Force Captain. Not an infant though, I have no time for mewling babies, now that Adora has grown.” There was nothing but raw loathing in that voice.

Catra watched with wide eyes as another soldier can in and together they walked to a small pod and tore the cover off, lifting out a small bundle of fur by the scruff of its neck and carrying it out as though it was something contaminated - far from their bodies and with little care. 

The time code on the footage continued to count down as she heard the sounds of metal being torn and plundered and the ominous sound of glass shattering in the adjoining room, It made Catra, far in the future, flinch with every sound. She sat for hours watching the screen as nothing happened. The sound had died a long time ago. The Horde soldiers had left a lamp in the room which remained illuminated after the motion sensor went dead. Our after hour she waited. They would not have left all of this behind. There was far more tech that they could plunder and all these other potential soldiers.

A cacophony of sound hit the speakers so unexpectedly that Catra flinched and threw up her arms to protect herself from the phantom threat. On the screen the there were some screams which quickly died and a plume of dust puffed through the open doors. The camera shook and then the doors slowly crept closed from the vibration…

Catra woke up the next morning having fallen asleep on the floor with her back against the dark girl’s pod, eyes fixed on the screen only to see the screen had gone black. All she could assume was that the landslide they had cleared had been caused by the Horde’s heavy handed actions and then this mission had been abandoned. Maybe they had had no use for this technology.

Maybe she had been so much of a disappointment that Shadow Weaver had decided not to waste any more effort on children like her. Maybe her shortcomings had saved them all from suffering the same fate as her.

Maybe it was ok that she had endured so much, for them.

*****

“…After we relocated the children to the town, as it was then, it was like a fire had been lit under us all . We may have been a crowd of criminals, mercenaries and deserters but what we saw down in that pit was genocide. No one could condone that.

There hadn’t been children in the Waste before. Now there were almost two hundred. None of us were so low that we would murder children, but it seemed as though the Horde had intended to and be stymied by circumstance. It was then that we all made the decision that the Horde had to be stopped. That all of the children who were there, or who had grown there, needed a chance.” Double Trouble paused, taking note of Catra’s far away expression and the horror on the faces opposite. Horror and incredulity from some. That troubled them, how could you hear about that and feel anything but horror?

“That’s…just…disgusting.” Mermista’s usually blasé tone was shaken. 

“Yes.” Scorpia spoke now, voice gravelly with tears even now, so many years later. “Catra and I made a plan to take down the Horde right then. We found a lot of amazing technology down there and suddenly we were a force to be reckoned with, galvanised by loathing.”

Catra noticed that along with Bow, Sea Hawk, and Perfuma, Adora was weeping as she kept her eyes fixed on her and the sleeping kitten.

“We can tell you more. But I think that’s enough for today.” Catra’s voice was low but carried through them all and this time there was no defiance.

They all started stood, readying to leave, when Frosta spoke. “What was that place?”

“The last hope of the magicat’s, the Halfmoon. It was an ark full of the last of my people and it crashed here, in the desert, a thousand years ago.” 

“The last…”

“There are more of us now than there were seven years ago.” Catra kissed Yarsha’s head as she spoke, she wasn’t the only new kitten born since then. Just one of the first. 

There was a pained silence as they left with a promise to come back and hear more the next day. Catra walked home with Yarsha in her arms and Scorpia by her side, into the orphanage. Yarsha stirred as they walked through the door and the trio were swarmed by a gaggle of excited kittens, hatchlings and children. Catra sank to her knees and let herself be engulfed by them all. 

The rest of the day was spent playing games that the other magicats had taught her over the years. The building was filled with shouting and laughter, sometimes on the run and others while sitting around in a group. Many of the other adults joined in as they returned from work and dinner time was spent with children and adults alike sharing their day with the people that they loved. It was cathartic after the painful memories of the afternoon.

Yarsha’s bedtime came too soon. She carried the kitten up through the throngs of other children wishing her goodnight, and got to their room. She left Yarsha pulling off her clothes, while she went to fill the bath with a shallow amount of warm water. Before she could go and fetch the little ball of fur, she was attacked from behind by a naked laughing ball. The two of them tumbled playfully, and eventually the little girl was doubled over laughing as she was gently tickled before being placed into the water. It barely covered her legs, but she splashed happily anyway.

Catra washed the little one efficiently, not wanting her to get too cold, before pulling her out and wrapping her in a huge, fluffy towel so that only her face was peeking out. She pressed their foreheads together and chuffed which got her a bop on the nose in returned. She placed the wrapped bundle on the sink counter and efficiently cleaned needle sharp little teeth before vigorously rubbing every bit of water out of tortoiseshell fur.

By the time Yarsha was dressed in her pyjamas, she was yawning and snuggling. “I sleep in da big bed, Ra?” He voice was foggy and her eyes were drooping closed.

“Of course you can, sweet girl.” A happy little ‘mrrp’ left the toddler who was almost asleep already. Catra pulled down the blankets and placed her in the centre, carefully tucking her in before she laid, still clothed beside Yarsha, on top of the linens and remembered.

*****

With few kittens left, it had been decided that they would wake the oldest looking kittens first, hoping that they would be able to explain the situation to them and then get their help with the others. There was no way to manhandle them out of the pit as they had with the more portable inhabitants for the room. Catra had felt compelled to be the one to wake the ebony furred girl. The lid came open with surprising ease and she reached in, hand hovering over a furred cheek, before detouring to land on her shoulder and gently squeeze.

“Hey, you need to wake up. We’re here to help.” Catra’s voice was soft, the tone the same that she had used with the smaller children that she had tried to rouse. 

The body under her hands began to tremble, fingers beginning to flex as she woke slowly. Catra watched as her throat bobbed as she swallowed and a big yawn broke out, revealing her long canines that seemed startlingly white against the darkness of her fur. If that was stark, when her eyes fluttered open, revealing eyes so green that they seemed to glow was mesmerising, and Catra found herself unable to look away, nearly resulting in her getting headset as the other girl began to sit up. Finding her wits just in time, Catra jerked back and helped the girl to sit up. She noticed, vaguely, that several of the other teens were also now sitting.

“Hey, you feel all right?” Catra kept her voice low, almost reverent as she spoke to this hypnotic girl.

“What…”. The girl’s voice was gravelly and Catra passed her a canteen that she accepted gratefully. “What’s going on? This wasn’t the protocol?” 

Those words let Catra know that she had been right, that this girl would be of use to them in figuring out everything that this place alluded to. Without waiting for a response, the other girl crawled out of the pod and shakily found her feet. Without thinking, Catra moved forward and steadied her, noting that the darker girl had a couple of inches on her own increased height. 

“Steady there, you need to give your body a minute. You’ve been down here for a really long time.”

“Down?” There was a slither of panic in her voice now.

“We found you all in a cavern in the desert.” Her words seemed to do nothing to ease the panic.

“We’re supposed to be in space. We’re supposed to be on our way to a new home planet.” Her hand came up to grasp the necklace that lay at her throat, holding it like a lifeline. 

“Whatever your people had planned, that was a long time ago. You and the other children are all that are left.” There was no gentle way to drop that bombshell, and they needed somebody who knew what was going on to help them.

Green eyes grew wider as she finally seemed to see Catra, scanning her face and reaching out to run a dark finger along the stripes on her arm. Her eyes roamed her features before locking with her eyes and a devastating realisation filled them. 

“Alcea…are you Alcea?” Catra swallowed, momentarily lost for words. Had that been her name?

“I don’t know. I was taken from here when I was very small. I didn’t even remember this existed until a few days ago when we found you.” She gestured to the motley crew of other species who were talking softly to the other teens. Green eyes followed and looked startled at these clearly alien faces. 

“You can only be little Alcea. There were no other younglings with eyes like yours. I used to sit you on my knee and read you stories when I looked after you for your parents.” Her eyes looked glassy now and Catra felt like if she moved she would shatter. “You said we are all that’s left? Where are the elders?” It was clear that she had already guessed the answer.

“They were murdered when I was taken. They were still asleep. It would have been swift.” It was no reassurance at all. “I think you might be one of the oldest. I was hoping you could help us figure out your technology, get a manifest of the children?” She didn’t say that she wanted to know about herself, in that moment it barely seemed important as she watched this strong girl gather herself as best she could.

“Of course. If the adults are gone, Phibin,” She indicated a stout white young male with a large bullseye of red around one eye, “and I are the oldest. Though I guess you might be the eldest now, Alcea.”

“Catra. My name is Catra. How old are the pair of you, what’s your name?” A long fingered hand settled her check as the former cadet had to hold in the urge to purr at the softness of the gesture.

“They really took everything from you, didn’t they?” Then the taller girl was moving forward and resting her forehead against Catra’s ruddy brown one. It was something she used to do to Adora when she felt a well of sadness or affection, never knowing why she felt compelled to do it. It seemed it was something she had known as an infant. “I’m Tace, you used to call me Tree because of my eyes and because you couldn’t say my name.” She pulled away with sad eyes that looked older than her age. “Phibin and I are nineteen. We were instructed in how to access everything on the ship, some of the others too, in case of a worst case scenario.”

‘I’m twenty.” It seemed important that this girl, this Tace, should know that.

“Twenty.” A black furred hand reached for her own at her side, a fluffy and luxurious tail twining with her wrist, and led her towards the monitor where she had seen her own kidnapping. “Let’s get that information then.”

******

Catra rolled over and pulled Yarsha to her, sighing deeply as she thought about the girl who had once, a thousand years ago, cared for a tiny version of her, and the woman who had been so brave in the face of near annihilation that she could love the broken thing Catra had become.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first of many trips to the past that will intercut the present - and don't worry Catradora content is coming.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pinch of Adora-trauma and more Tace.

Curled up into a ball on her bed, covers pulled up to her chin, Adora tried to shut out the noise in her head. Hearing how Double Trouble and Catra had found the last of the magicats had been harrowing, even in their bare-bones retelling of it. Though the shape shifter had clearly been sticking to the facts - at times almost clinical in their explanation - they had not been able to soften the blow of murdered innocents and orphaned children. When they had come to Catra, and her kidnapping from the place, the others only saved from Shadow Weaver’s wrath by a freak landslide, Adora hadn’t been able to stop the tears that had scolded a path down her face.

One of her most treasured childhood memories had been finding Catra. She’s been around four at the time and already in the same bunk room as Rogelio, Kyle and Lonnie. The big lizard man had been nothing but a tiny crawling lizard, barely looking any different to the little animals that they sometimes found scuttling around the shower block, except for his little uniform bib. They had gone to lessons in classrooms where they had been taught how to handle weapons and the basics of reading and writing. Most of their time had been spent playing, or what passed for playing in the Horde. They had played ‘hide from the princess’ and target practice, all the while Shadow Weaver looming over them to heap praise on her shoulders or gentle admonition when she wasn’t prefect. 

She had snuck out one night, hungry and knowing that she was unlikely to be caught creeping into the mess hall, and even if she was Shadow Weaver would stroke her head and tell her she was a good girl for using her skills. She had been in the deserted kitchen area, climbing up on the counter to fetch a grey ration bar when she had heard a whimpering sound. She had jumped and squeaked herself, at first, worried that it was a mouse, but when the sound had come again, followed by some feint rustling, she jumped down from the counter and scampered to the door on socked feet.

She remembered pushing the creaky door open just enough to get out, pulling a stool over to hold it open and then she had been outside. It was dark and murky out there in the night, scarier than a place you grew up in should be. When her eyes adjusted she had seen a pile of garbage sitting beside the door. There were flies buzzing around bags and boxes and a rancid, decaying smell that made her curl her button nose. Seeing nothing, she had turned to go back, her feet were cold though her socks and starting to feel a little damp, when one of the boxes shuddered and toppled off of the pile.

Adora stepped back warily, ready to run in case an evil princess came out to get her. She was brave though, so she stood her ground, little fists balled, eyes glaring at the twitching box. That’s when the box had tumbled a second time, and two huge ears had peeked out of the opening. As though drawn by a siren song, young Adora had found herself moving forward until she was looking over the edge of the big box. Inside was a trembling ball of dirty fur. Other than the ears it was hard to tell what the little thing looked like. It was so tightly coiled and the fur dirty and matted.

Cautiously the little blond reached out a hand and touched one of the ears, it felt like velvet. Then two enormous eyes were glowing up at her, bright in the darkness, one blue and the other yellow. They blinked up at her fearfully and she gave them a big, gap-toothed grin.

“Hello.” Adora’s voice was loud in the night and the thing cowered way into the corner of the large box. “Oh, don’t be scared. I’m a good guy. I’ll protect you!” Because that’s who she had believed they were, the good guys, saving the world from the tyranny of the princesses. It made her adult incarnation sick to think of it.

A tail had uncoiled and the ball of dirty fur had turned out to be a child, much smaller than her with cat-like features. It was a little girl, she could see, because it was naked and she realised that the reason it was shaking was from the cold. With all her four year old strength, she had put her arms underneath the toddler’s armpits and hoisted her up before clumsily stagger-carrying her into the kitchen and down the hall to a supply room. She found a blanket and wrapped the silent form in a blanket and gave her a ration bar she had stuffed in her pocket. Sharp little teeth nibbled it and then the face creased in disgust and spat it out.

“Yucky.” It was the first thing it had said.

“Hey, you can talk! I’m Adora, what’s your name?” 

“You not cat.” The mismatched eyes looked wary.

“No, I’m a human. Is your name Cat?” The smaller girl just pouted and shrugged. “How about I call you Catra, like I’m Adora. We can be the same and then you won’t be on your own.”

She had thought that the toddler had made an affirmative sound, little face drooping as she had fallen asleep leant up against the wall.

That had been how they had met and become fast friends. She had never really thought about the implications of finding Catra naked and filthy in the garbage. Now, after having heard what Double Trouble had told them about how they had found the children and what they had seen on the security footage, she just felt sick. No wonder Shadow Weaver had always treated the magicat like dirt, she had intended to throw the little girl away.

Adora had no love lost between her and her former mentor. She gave her a wide birth in the halls of Brightmoon. She was horrified by the things that she had seen Shadow Weaver do during the war. Sometimes she thought about what had been intended for her, and she would have to do all she could not to fall victim to a panic attack. Thinking about how Shadow Weaver had lived in the relative luxury of her ‘cell’ in the palace, while Scorpia and Catra escaped to an existence out in the desert made her feel more guilty than ever. Without even a trial, the former second in command of the Horde had become just a part of the daily life of the castle, kept away from King Micah and Adora but still allowed to be a part of life there, even if she could never leave the grounds. 

Adora often wondered what the red robed woman had done to deserve such kind treatment when she had never offered the same, and she was still wondering. 

Thinking about the murder of people sleeping peacefully in their pods, of the way that the children had been left behind with every intention of killing them if they proved not to be useful, and how Catra had been destined for the incinerator all those years ago left her feeling sick and tired to her bones. She pulled the comforter over her head and pressed her eyes tightly closed against the pounding in her head as she let herself be drawn down into the undertow of sleep…

….fire lapped at her legs, searing pains running along the nerves as her pants melted into her skin. She tried to scream but heat raced down her throat, burning away her vocal cords and making her lungs explode in her chest. Tears tried to escape her eyes - turning to ash before they could ever touch her cheeks…

…she watched from a million miles away. Blackness all around as she surged towards a nebulous vortex of pinks and golds, hurtling towards a planet far below. The air was sucked out of her lungs and her skin turned cold and hard as diamond. The surface of the planet surged closer and closer, everything blurring around her. She tried to bring her arms up to shield her face. She struck the stoney ground and shattered into a million diamond-bright pieces…

…white and red and gold and black bodies pressed against her. Warm and furred, gentle purrs lulling her deeper and deeper into sleep. A long tail curled around her hand and she felt herself tugged along as her eyes opened and she found herself on an empty street. He feet stumbled as she was pulled along behind a chestnut coloured kitten, moving so fast that she was almost a blur. She lurched forwards as the kitten released her hand and disappeared into a crowd of other small magicats.

She peered closely at each one. Desperately seeking a face that was familiar, she rushed to first, then another, spinning them to face her. Finding herself looking into nothing but a blank mask of nothingness….

…Catra was nothing more than a kitten, throat held tightly in Shadow Weaver’s long fingered hand. Adora watched, helpless and unable to move, as the little magicat was brought up to eye level with her assailant, feet and tail hanging limply. All the fight in her was gone. Adora tried to beg for her little friend but no words came, as though her voice had been stolen.

Shadow Weaver turned the kitten to face her friend, pulling her into her body in a parody of a hug as her other hand came up, a long wicked blade glinting in the light. As it came to the kitten’s neck, moving across fur and flesh. Adora screamed…

…Adora screamed and jerked up in bed, throwing the comforter off and clutching at her chest where her heart pounded so hard she feared it would break free. She was dizzy and disorientated. So lost in the haze of her whirling nightmares she didn’t hear the person walk up to the bed, softly saying her name. Was unaware that she wasn’t alone until she was pulled into the comfortingly real form of a warm body, a hand cupping the back of her head as she broke down in tears that soaked into her companions’ shoulder. 

Glimmer looked up at Bow, still frozen in the doorway. They had been heading to the blond’s room, not having seen her since they returned to the hotel, and wanted to make sure she would come down for dinner. They had heard the scream from a little way down the hall and run to her aid. The Princess had feared there was an attack, and been taken aback by the sight of nothing but Adora wearing an expression of defeated terror.

“Adora,” Glimmer whispered, sounding much more like the young girl who had taken in a Horde cadet. “Hey, everything’s ok. We’re here.”

_________________

Catra strolled from Bazaar with purpose, all the commotion of the day before meant that she was looking at a big pile of unfinished work. Being the chief of the police force was interesting and challenging, something that she needed less she get bored and get into trouble. It had actually been Tace who suggested that this should be the role she take in the new world they were building together. The wiser, more level headed woman (and how she missed that foil for her own hot tempered nature) had found her reticence to represent the former Horde on the council, after the collapse of the Fright Zone, puzzling but never challenged it. Eventually she had understood. She couldn’t let all of Catra’s skills be wasted though and once a system of law and order was established she had put Catra forward to run it. They had been a powerful pair, Tace taking the reins as chief of the magicats while Catra kept the peace.

Passing Phibin in his boutique, she detoured in. The younger man, though not by much, had changed a lot over the years. When she first found them he had been selfish and youthfully arrogant. His sense of self importance had grated on her and his attitude to Tace had earned him a set of claw marks and several black eyes along the way. The Phibin of eight years before and the twenty-seven year old man before her were as different as a person could be. He was now a pudgy, finely groom cat with a passion for fashion and a confusing relationship with Double Trouble that more often than not left Catra scratching her head.

“Morning Phibs, got anything pretty in for my girl?” She ran her fingers over some of the fine silk he always seem to have, how even she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t her speed, but Yar-Yar loved the frilly dresses he sold for children.

“Nothing new at the mo, Chief. How is the cutest kitty in Oasis?” All of the orphans of the Halfmoon had a soft spot for Tace’s child.

“She’s great, spending the day with Rogelio and Kyle.” It sometimes felt strange to share such mundane conversation, as a brash youth she would have turned her nose up at small talk bit a lot of water had flowed under that bridge and now banal normality was a comfort.

“Well, you know if you ever need me to, she could spend the day here with me. I’m sure she’d like to play with the scraps in the fabric room.” The mental image of Yarsha rolling around and batting at ribbons popped into her head and made her smile. 

“I’m sure when she’s a little bigger I won’t be able to keep her out of here Phibs.”

“How are you? I heard that the people who you used to be at war with are here,” there was no need to ask how he knew, the gossip spread faster than the heat in Oasis. 

“It’s nothing to worry about, just moving up our timetable for reintegration a little sooner that we’d planned.” She wasn’t quite so confident that all was well, but no point spreading panic.

Phibs got closer to her and raised his hand to her cheeks, she let him, holding back her instinct to flinch away. Some habits were hard to break. He brought her forehead to his and gave her a slow blink. “I know that you’re strong, but if you need to talk, cat-to-cat, I know I’m not Tace, but I’m here.”

Catra had to leave, lest she end up blubbering. They had all come so far, so fast. Phibin watched her leave as though he had scared her, and maybe he had, he knew she struggled with affection. He turned back to his little slice of the world and walked into the making room, maybe he had enough of that gorgeous red taffeta to knock out a tiny dress.

Catra quickened her pace, finally seeing the office ahead, she couldn’t help but think of Tace, Phibs kind words taking her back to when they were all so young.

*******

Catra had planned to head back to the ship alone. And hadn’t that been a brain bender, to learn that she was not from here. One thing to be a sacrifice that helped protect the others from the clutches of a personal monster, another to learn they should never have been there at all. When confronted by Scorpia, worry etched across her open face, about why she was going back, she had claimed it was for the tech. That was part of it, but certainly not the real reason. That was obvious to everyone. Catra, having been tantalised with a hint of the past, couldn’t resist the allure of finding out more.

Throwing together the supplies she’d need for several days in the desert, and in the pit, on a sled that she had borrowed from a gruffly sympathetic Tung Lashor (and hadn’t him turning out to be a reliable guy, after all the resentment petered out, been a surprise?) She’d started out of the door of her tiny alcove. It was a small, cramped space barely big enough for her narrow cot, foot locker and desk, but it was all she needed. Bizarrely it reminded her of all the tiny, cramped spaces she’d found comfort and solace in as a small child growing up in fear; the small places of safety. Picking up her mask from the bed and placing it on like the armour it was, she made for the door. 

A figure was there, blocking the light streaming in from outside, pushing back the thin threadbare curtain that acted as a door. Catra tensed at the intrusion. Nobody was foolish enough to invade her space, door or no door, yet here stood somebody who had done just that. Claws extended, she refrained from lashing out when it registered who this intruder was. Silhouetted by the bright sunlight outside, Tace was little more than a silhouette. The only part of her providing any colour, her startling green eyes.

“What are you doing here? Get out!” She bit the words our harshly, angry at somebody invading her sanctuary and regretted it as soon as she noticed the younger girl flinch and begin to pull back as she spoke. Tace was almost gone before Catra found her wits and called to her. 

“Wait! Wait. I’m sorry I got angry… I’m not used to people coming in here…It’s something I’m working on.” Her arm was outstretched in supplication to the taller girl who had stopped walking away but had yet to turn around.

They stayed that way for a while, until Tace’s shoulder’s dropped and she turned around, eyes downcast as she bowed her head, not making eye contact with Catra. The former cadet felt a pang in her chest at the display of submission. Once, not long ago, she would have revelled in the feeling of power and domination over somebody else; all she had ever wanted since she was a child, beaten down by almost everyone around her, now it just felt hollow. The young woman in front of her had lost everything and to delight in her felling small brought bile to her throat. 

“Hey, Tace, look at me.” Big green eyes met her own and the black furred woman chewed on her lip. “How can I help you?” That was what a normal person would say, she was pretty sure, if somebody came to their door.

“Oh, I heard that you were heading back to Halfmoon.” Her eyes darted away, and then she firmed her jaw and her resolve. Catra couldn’t help but notice how the light shimmered across her glossy fur with the movement. “I wanted to come with you. I know the layout and how the technology works. There is a lot of stuff there that could help you make this place better for all of us.”

How could she say no? Catra was returning from a morbid sense of curiosity, and Tace surely felt the same. Maybe she wanted to find her people among the dead? Maybe she really wanted to help? Whichever was true, Catra made a quick calculation in her mind and realised that she had more than enough supplies for the two of them packed already. 

“Fine.” The word escaped softly, but alert, tufted ears picked up as easily as a shout. “I hope you’re ready to go because I’m leaving now.”

“Sure am.” Tace pointed to the bulging pack on her back, tone flat. It wasn’t what Catra had come to expect from the self assured young woman, and it was her fault.

Tace turned and left the doorway, Catra trailing behind. They climbed to the top of the crevice, not too far from her home. Catra may be wild and free now, but a very big part of her wanted to know that she could escape at any time and being at the bottom of what was essentially a large pit had made her heckles rise. Her fully loaded sled was waiting close by and she put the harness over her shoulders ready to pull. She cast her mismatched eyes over to the girl glowing almost blue under the sun, and made a decision.

“Tace, tie your pack to the sled. We can take turns pulling it rather than both getting too tired to do much of anything.” Catra had hoped to only have to make camp once on the way to the crash site, unencumbered by the bigger, slower Huntara and Scorpia, and it looked like Tace would be able to match her.

“Thanks.” Again there was no eye contact as she retied ropes around the full pack and then moved to Catra’s side.

Catra shot her a reassuring look, which she wasn’t sure that her companion saw, and then they were striking out into the desert. The first couple of hours flew by quickly, though not a word was spoken between them and the tense silence was making both girls increasingly uncomfortable. It was Tace who finally broke it when they sat down to eat some lunch in the shade of a small overhang.

“Thank you for letting me tag along.” Her fingers toyed with the food pouch rather than eating it. 

During the month since the magicats had be brought back to the town, Tace had spent a lot of time with the other woman, as had all of the oldest of the kittens. There had been logistical issues to deal with, of course; where could the almost two hundred children live in a town made of thrown together buildings and dug outs in the wall, built by people as necessary? Who would care for them? It was unreasonable to think that the small group of teens could take on that responsibility. Catra, Tace and the other leaders of this wild place had been shocked when more than one member of the mercenary community had come forward to offer their help. It seemed that, just because you were a thug didn’t mean that you couldn’t have a soft spot for children.

Things were still being worked on, certainly nothing was perfect, but it was good enough. The dark magicat knew that there was a plan going on behind the scenes to take down some military organisation, the ones who had murdered all of the adults, but she had not been made privy to that or why so many of the gang members were invested in it. She was pretty sure that the contents of Halfmoon could help them, though, and was determined to make herself and her people essential parts of this world.

All that time spent working with the other woman had brought a cavalcade of conflicting emotions for Tace. It was hard to look at the wild mane, reddish-brown fur with those cute stripes and distinctive eyes and not think of picking up a miniature version of her. Remember tickling her fuzzy belly and hearing bell like laughter as she sat her down and made her snacks, or drew pictures. That two year old Alcea that lived in her head was always transposed over this sharp and sometimes acerbic Catra who seemed to inspire loyalty in people even while she was pushing them away half the time. The fact that Catra was tall and strong, with her chiselled jaw and ever present physicality made looking at her doubly difficult. Tace felt uncomfortable with her as much as she was drawn to seek her out. 

“There’s a lot of equipment on the ship that I have, some idea how to use. It could help you with the town, maybe with the…other thing?” Why did she sound so uncertain? Tace’s Zu had always said she was the most confident cub they had ever known, where was that woman now?

“What kind of stuff?” Catra spoke around a mouth full of dried meat that she dared not consider the origins of.

“We were looking for a habitable planet. Ours had been destroyed by an invasion force but we managed to get a few ark ships away. We were all looking for somewhere new to live. There was terraforming equipment in the ships.” 

“What’s that?” Catra had lowered her lunch and was studying her intently.

“Terraforming? Its scientific equipment that can make an inhospitable place liveable. Like it could make this desert green so you could make crops.” The other cat’s eyes had lit up and become the size of dinner plates. It was ludicrously endearing to Tace. “Don’t get too excited. I don’t really know much abut how that works but I’m sure we could figure it out.”

“Good job you turned up at my door then, huh?” Catra had sidled closer on the sand and nudged her playfully with her shoulder. It was a simple gesture that made both young women relax.

The rest of the days journey was much easier, the magicats falling into an easy, if superficial, camaraderie. Tace spoke of the world that she remembered all too well to the clear delight of the other woman. In exchange, Catra told her a little of this Etheria that she had landed on. She noticed that there were no personal details from her travelling companion, and she didn’t push. She could only imagine, and had, what kind of life the stolen kitten must have had.

It was a little before dusk when Catra noticed that the taller girl was starting to flag, dropping behind her on the sand. In the early part of the day they had traded off pulling the sled a few hours at a time but as the day moved into evening, Catra had taken over. Her greater strength showing though as her stretched muscles told her that she could go for another few hours even with the added weight if she needed it too. She slowed to let Tace catch up and felt a hand rest briefly on her shoulder when the taller women reached her.

A big part of Catra wanted to keep going, but she could see the tiredness around the green eyes. They would still reach the ship tomorrow even if they set up camp now. Looking around, this was as good a place as any and she let the straps of the sled harness fall. Tace bent as though to put them on and Catra stayed her hand.

“We’ll set up camp for the night. Set out at first light. I can pitch the tent, you can unpack the sleeping bags and food.” It was a good feeling to be able to take control and be in charge of somebody else’s well being. They had turned in as soon as it was dark, Catra strangely comfortable with the near stranger at her side as she fell into a relaxed sleep.

Canvas flapped overhead, the morning sun just rising, already heating the close confines. There was clearly a strong breeze today and Catra thanked the moons for it. The day before had been stifling and she had fought her base instinct to snipe when feeling discomfort, not wanting to be unkind to the young woman who laid, still purring, beside her.

Catra couldn’t remember when she had last slept so well in the presence of another person. It had been a long time. She wasn’t sure if it was the smell of warm fur, the purring of the snores that filled the tent or just the mellow aura of the other woman, but whatever it was she was glad that she had brought Tace along. Something itched at her hand and she realised a fluffy black tail was curled around her wrist and twitching now and again. 

Rising, she used her other hand to lift herself into a seated position without waking the other woman and found herself just looking at her. Her eyes trailed over the sleeping face. Tace’s features were rounder than her own, her nose aquiline and matching her slightly jutting chin. Catra felt the urge to reach out and touch the ear that lay closest to her, but resisted. They looked much furrier than her own, as though they would be softer and less smooth then hers, they were also a little smaller. Then there was the hair in its tiny braids that in some ways reminded her of Lonnie, and in others were the most attractive thing she had ever seen. She was lost in her contemplation of the serene face and almost missed when green eyes opened and caught her.

Catra blushed under her fur and stammered something about breakfast as she scrambled out of the tent and into the daylight. Tace was left bemused. Had Catra been looking at her while she slept? 

Neither of them talked about the morning, instead hustling to get there things back together and make it back to the crater. Tace began to absently sing a song from home, her voice high and willowy, floating away from them on the breeze. It was a song full of longing and hope, the words new to Catra but the melody familiar in the way that a nursery rhyme might be. Tace grew self conscious as she realised that the stronger woman was listening to her with rapt attention and trailed off.

“No, don’t stop. It was beautiful. Could you sing another?” Seeing nothing but sincerity on her face, Tace began another song, this one more upbeat and cheery. It was one that she used to sing to little Alcea as she would twirl the kitten around in her arms and hear giggles in reply. The grown version of her childhood charge seemed to appreciate it too but there was still no recognition there.

“Do you know any songs?” It was soon Tace’s turn to pull the sled, she was determined to pull her weight, in this case literally. 

“Wasn’t a lot of that in the Horde.” A clawed hand scratched at the back of her neck. “I do know one, I think. Scorpia sung it a lot for a while, I think she heard it on a raid.” It was the most she had shared about her life as a child soldier.

Tace listened, ears attuned only to the low, gravelly sound of Catra voice as she sang a song about harvesting. The song itself was nothing special but the voice was spellbinding. It seemed like they got to the crater in no time, caught up as they were in getting more comfortable with each other. When the rescue mission had been mounted to bring the kittens back, a ramp had been thrown together into the crater meaning that the sled could be taken down. Efficiently they set up a camp and got all the equipment they would need to safely navigate the subterranean ruin.

“Where should we start?” Neither young woman was keen to head back to the death chamber.

“We should find the bridge. If the systems are still working we can activate them from there. It will mean we can check on supplies and equipment.” Tace had spent a lot of time on the bridge of ships as she grew up and was confident that she would be able to navigate the systems.

They were grovelling along the hull of the ship, darkness around them and only the illumination of one torch. They reached the large, ugly hole, and flicked on the lights that had been left there. Catra uncoiled the rope that she had brought with her and then looked expectantly at her companion.

“It’ll be easiest to access through the third level.” She was surprised when, with a flourish the rope was secured and Catra was already disappearing down the hole with a graceful leap. Tace peered over the lip of the precipice apprehensively, pleased to see that the other cat was in complete control of her descent and using her momentum to swing one the jagged walkway that was exposed on the third level. She walked out of sight for a moment and the rope grew taught.

“Slide down, Tace. I’ll grab you.” Taking hold of the rope in both hands she lowered herself over the edge, bringing her legs up around the rope and letting herself slowly slide towards the waiting hands. She felt Catra take her by the waist when she got close enough, and pull her into her own body. 

Flustered, Tace pulled away. “This way.” She walked into the darkness, turning on her own torch to add to the illumination of Catra’s own.

Unlike the pod level, the walls here were perfect, showing no sign of looting. The dozens of doors that lined their path were all still sealed and nothing had disturbed the thick layer of sand and dust that covered the floor. The ship was huge and they walked for a long time before they reached the large circular door that barred entrance into the command area. It loomed above them, their torches casting strange shadows in the heavy metal disk that jutted from the surface.

“How do we get through that?” Catra was examining the cog-looking barrier that was twice as tall as she was.

“You need an access code.” Tace was already moving towards a sensor pad to the right of the wall. “I know it.” She placed her hand on the device, as Catra had down below, and it bloomed to life in the same way. Tace pulled back her and hit an assortment of buttons, each bleeping in a jolly rhythm. A beep of confirmation let them know that the code had been accepted.

Tace joined Catra and they watched as the door began to make a grinding sound before it rolled sideways, disappearing into the wall to the side of the hallway. Inside the aperture the lights flickered to life, clearly connected to the code to unlock the door. They both blinked against the sudden brightness in the gloom. They walked forward, Tace leading the way past a couple of glass walled rooms that looked like something Entrapta would enjoy. Everywhere was deserted.

Everywhere, except the bridge. 

They stepped onto the large space dominated by a large display screen that covered the whole front of the room. There was no time to take in anything about the room before they saw the bodies. Or rather, Tace saw the bodies and let out a stifled cry from behind her hand. Catra turned at the sound, registering the desiccated skeletal remains that lay slumped over equipment. There were ten in all. Most collapsed in pairs, entwined as though they had huddled together at the end. They were not mummified like those from below, these were bone an scraps of cloth, obviously having been dead for as long as the ship had been here. 

Tace had fallen to her knees in front of the two figures in the command chair. Her shoulders were shaking but she was silent. Catra moved towards her but feared speaking in this place. When Tace moved, Catra was startled at the suddenness of the motion. She moved closer and reached out her hand to touch the uniform of the seated figure, just over the breast. Then she broke with a long, terrifying wail.

Catra was moving before the sound could stop, scooping up the other woman, bridal style, and rushing her out of the room and back down the corridor to the dark, abandoned area outside the large door. Not letting go, Catra set her back against the wall and slid down so that she was now cradling the sobbing figure in her lap. She felt out of her depth, but did what other had down for her. She pulled Tace’s head under her chin and ran her hand up her back, under her hair, until she could cup the base of her skull and whispering soothing nothings to her.

It took a long time for the black cat to stop crying, her body eventually going limp in her arms from exhaustion, lingering hiccups occasionally shaking her frame. She never raised her head, and Catra rested her chin on the braids and waited. Finally Tace began to speak in low, lifeless tones.

“Those were my parents. My Zu was the pilot, my Ra the science officer. I was…I was…” She trailed off, Catra knowing better than to ask her questions about the unfamiliar words she had used just kept quiet, scratching soothingly at her scalp with her claws. “I was hoping they had been in the pods, at least. They look like they were all afraid when they died. They must have known.” Tears started again and Catra just held her. 

_________________

Tace watched the chestnut haired woman bent over the papers on the table, head held up on one hand as she glared at what was in front of her. Her jaw was clenching, bulging the muscles in her cheek and causing a big, black ears to twitch in agitation. Tace’s fingers ached to go and smooth down the always wild hair, to soothe her, but the swelling emotions that filled her at the thought held her back. Her conflicting thoughts were getting ever more confusing as she spent more time with the de facto leader of this place. Bawling in her arms in the eery light of the Halfmoon after finding the corpse of her parents had felt like a homecoming of sorts and left her heart and mind in a whirl. 

Catra had taken her up to the surface, gently wiped the salty tracks from her face with a cloth dampened with their precious water supply and made her stay in the tent that they had pitched in the crater. Then she had disappeared for several hours. Tace had insisted on joining her, but a steel had crept into the lighter cat’s voice and she had told her to stay put. Tace had wanted to argue, to say that she could carry her weight, but was secretly relieved that she wouldn’t have to go back right away. When Catra had returned, her shoulder’s had been slumped and her eyes had a pinched quality that showed that she was exhausted. She had returned empty handed save for the supplies that she had taken with her. 

She hadn’t said much to the black furred girl on her return, but had sat beside her and leaned against her shoulder. The next day, when Tace was allowed to return to the ship, she found that the bridge had been cleared of the bodies and when she had asked, Catra had simply shrugged and replied that she had taken each of them down to the pod chamber and placed them in the bigger pods in the children’s room. Tace had been so touched that tears had formed in her eyes again, but she had bitten them back, instead moving to embrace the other girl who had stiffened in her arms but made no move to break away. She had gruffly said it was nothing and they had begun to inventory supplies. 

In the months since she had been awakened on the Halfmoon, Tace had spent a lot of time with the now fully grown Alcea. Catra, her mind supplied. The tot she had spent so many days kitten sitting for her parents had grown into a strong, capable woman who seemed to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders and a host of demons in her heart. She was reticent to talk about how she had grown up, and Tace, along with the other teens, hadn’t pushed it as they were still trying to process their own losses, along with taking care of the little kids. Though the elders had prepared them for disaster, none of them had ever thought it would come to pass.

The dark furred young magicat had taken charge of the few survivors, Phibin had griped but at heart he was a lazy oaf he would never take control. It meant that she spent a lot of time alone with the tactician. Tace and the others weren’t entirely sure what was being planned around them, but between that and helping to integrate the magicats into this ramshackle society it seemed as though the younger/older girl barely slept. Finding the terraforming equipment along with a slew of drones, drills and other building equipment seemed to have turned a tide in terms of improving their way of life, though that wasn’t what was on the minds of Catra, Scorpia and the others who were in charge here.

It hadn’t taken long to discover that the whole the Waste was focused on taking down the Horde. Naturally, the magicat’s old enough to understand that had been instantly on board. They had seen the security footage of the people who had torn Catra from her pod and slain their parents. They had expected the rough and ready people around them to be planning an assault through the front door with guns blazing. The raucous laughter that the suggestion had gotten from Huntara had been a surprise, but coupled with the revelation that the Horde had been holding it’s own as a war machine for at least thirty years, meant that they had a military might that the former gangs of the desert could not take down. Instead their plan was to poison the place with dissent. It had already been going on for several months, with coded messages being piped in. The step was to send in Double Trouble and the other shape shifters to further sow seeds of discontent.

Tace had suggested using the drones to deliver letters and items that might prove an incentive to the growing group of dissenters in the Horde ranks. They would also be able to bring back messages. It was an idea that had been met with universal approval, but seemed to be causing a problem.

“Damn it!” The outburst was startling after so much stillness and Tace jumped as a pencil sailed past her and embedded itself in the sandstone wall, point first. Low growling rumbled through the room. “Where’s Entrapta when you need her?” A shaggy head thudded onto the table, the words muffled.

“What’s an Entrapta?” She hadn’t meant to blurt the words but the chuckle she received in response made her smile.

“Exactly.” Catra still hadn’t raised her head, but the tense line of her shoulders showed that she was not relaxed, just frustrated.

As though she was being pulled by an invisible thread Tace found herself pulled towards the desk. She walked around it until she was stood behind her new friend and reaching out. Her hands landed on the tense shoulders, which hunched even further at her touch though the woman did not pull away. Tace began to knead at them and gradually, bit by bit the young woman relaxed. Tace continued the massage even when Catra sat back up and turned her head to look at her with an inscrutable expression. 

Tace found her hands moving up to burry themselves in the tangled mane, rubbing at the scalp beneath until an involuntary purr was pulled from the woman below her. The startling eyes were fluttering closed and Tace found herself leaning down, until her lips were millimetres from the other girl’s. She hesitated to close the distance between them, Catra did not. She surged forward, sealing their lips together and rising from her seat to turn their positions, hoisting Tace onto the desk, crinkling the papers that sat their and they melted together for the first time.

*******

Catra sat and stared at the mountain of papers on her desk and let out a sigh and she pushed her hair out of her eyes. How could one missed afternoon leave so much work? Administration was a nightmare but nobody else had the skill set she did, though she was working on that with her team. It was a slow process.

Picking up her pen, she resumed her analysis of recent trends when the door to her tiny cubby of an office banged open, hard, making her flinch. She looked up balefully, to see a younger male magicat looking at her with horror at the noise he had caused. He was a good guy so she couldn’t stay mad for long.

“What is it, Jorth?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora's having a quarter life crisis all right.
> 
> And Perfuma hearts Scorpia!

Twirling around, Double Trouble caught sight of themselves in the mirror and admired the way the new purple outfit accentuated their lithe form. They hadn’t been sure about the colour when Phibin had given it to them, but they should have known better, the magicat just had an eye for fashion. The chubby kitty had grown out of his hyper-masculine shell and blossomed into a sweet man whom Double Trouble spent entirely too much time, and too much money with.

Leaving their office they walked down the corridor, only to find themself face-to-face with a ball of simmering resentment and her entourage. Scanning all of their faces it was clear that most of them seemed uncomfortable to be here, it was good to know that they had been paying attention during their stay here, even if their leader had not. It was early, far too early for them to be here for an appointment they had not yet made and DT could tell that this was a day that was going to end in a headache and the need for copious amounts of alcohol.

The day before had been draining for all of the Oasis inhabitants, and they had just been pleased that Catra had mangled to hold her temper. It had been a stroke of luck that Yarsha had run out to her, and something they wished they had thought of, though Catra would never had stood for that. It was understandable but showed weakness in the magicat that the lithe lizard lacked. DT wasn’t one for too much sentimentality when there was a goal to achieve. Fortunately, they were working towards the better of the people. After seeing all those bodies on the Halfmoon, they knew that they would never be able to leave, move on and grift, when they could make a different here. It had been their watershed moment. They had hoped that hearing about it would have helped these people see the bigger picture, but clearly some (one) of them needed more.

“Princess, how can I help you this morning? I was’t aware that we had an appointment. I thought we all agreed that after yesterday we would let things settle?” The pink eyes glowered and that headache was already starting at the base of their ears. 

“Yes, the magicat sob story was very affecting,” all of the other Alliance members winced at her choice of words, the Bow reaching out a hand as if to admonish Glimmer but held bad at the sight of her pursed lips. “But we still have questions that were not addressed. Nothing we were told yesterday explained why we should trust that Catra isn’t tricking us into letting our guard down.”

Double Trouble had to use all their acting muscle not to roll their eyes at the fiery woman. She clearly had an axe to grind with the oldest of the magicats and was not going to let it go without a full rundown of taking down the Fright Zone, and what Catra’s duties actually entailed. The woman was going to be more than a little peeved to have to meet again, and Double Trouble did so hate to be on the receiving end of one of her tirades, they were very energetic.

“Of course. If you could give me thirty minutes, I will need to organise us a room and get Catra here. As we were not expecting this meeting, there isn’t time to go back to the bar, I hope that one of our smaller meeting rooms will suit?” A large, hopefully earnest, smile played on their lips as they spoke disarmingly.

“That is acceptable. We will return in thirty minutes.” Glimmer was walking away, the others trailing. The sardonic water princess shot a mouthed ‘sorry’ while the plant one just shook her head and looked more troubled than the rest. DT filed that away for later, maybe they could be allies along the way.

Walking into the lobby, thankful that the princesses had already cleared out, the council member walked purposefully towards a magicat male who was stationed by the door as security. It was one of the many roles that Catra’s people played in the city along with patrolling the shield, ensuring that people had anything they needed to start new lives as they came in, watching over the day-to-day management of parks and farmland as well as the tedium of breaking up bar fights. There were some more heinous crimes, you can’t build perfection from debris in less than a decade, but it was rare. 

“Jorth!” The magicat jumped to sloppy attention. “I need you to hurry back to the office and tell Catra she needs to get herself here in the next twenty minutes. The Alliance have demanded another meeting.” Not waiting for the young man to respond, they shooed him away and watched as he started to run to head quarters.

Catra sat and stared at the mountain of papers on her desk and let out a sigh and she pushed her hair out of her eyes. How could one missed afternoon leave so much work? Administration was a nightmare but nobody else had the skill set she did, though she was working on that with her team. It was a slow process.

Picking up her pen, she resumed her analysis of recent trends when the door to her tiny cubby of an office banged open, hard, making her flinch. She looked up balefully, to see a younger male magicat looking at her with horror at the noise he had caused. He was a good guy so she couldn’t stay mad for long.

“What is it, Jorth?” She didn’t mean to snarl at him, but from the way his ears pressed close to his head and his shoulders hunched, she had.

“Chief, Councillor Double Trouble sent me to get you. Seems that the Alliance want another meeting today. They told me that you needed to be there in the next twenty minutes.” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a breathless rush and she was sure that if she didn’t know him as well as she did, she would have missed half of it.

Catra felt her blood boil at the audacity of these interlopers, pulling her away from her life to satisfy some ancient revenge that would be left forgotten. She must have growled, because she noticed Jorth take a step back and saw how her claws had extended and ripped deeply into the wood of the table, thankfully missing the papers she had been working on. Forcing herself to close her eyes and take a deep breath, something Tace had encouraged her to do after one too many violent outbursts, she stood and started to gather the most pressing paperwork.

She saw Jorth edging his way out of the door and signalled for him to wait. He stood to attention and watched her with wary eyes. She grabbed a seldom used messenger bag from the corner and slid a large pile of papers into it, along with pens, a stapler and other things she would need. She would go to the meeting but she would be damned if she was going to lose another days work for the sparkle princess.

“Come on Jorth, you can help me get this stuff done today. I might need you to fetch and carry things back and forth today.” Jorth puffed up his chest and his ears went from limp and wary to perked alertly. It was a real honour to be picked by the chief to do something. Doubly so for the magicat’s on the team, for whom she was doubly chief.

____________________

A soft knock on the door brought Adora out of her troubled thoughts. The chaotic and revealing meeting today, coupled with the bombshells of the previous day not letting her mind rest. It was one thing to learn about the Horde committing near genocide twenty-five years ago, and another to hear how easy it had been to take the Fright Zone apart with just words and promises of hope. The insidious hope that they had inserted throughout the Horde had spread faster than a wildfire, the men and women all too ready to turn their backs on a war that had no end in sight and leaders that they had long since realised didn’t care about anyone but themselves. Yes, there had been hold outs, but you can’t lead an army if the army has walked away. Adora had been impressed with the explanation, hoping that she would be able to find out more from her old team.

Glimmer had been less impressed, believing that it was obvious that the people had turned from one dictator to another who had made them whatever promises they needed to, to build a whole new army. Through it all, Catra had been in the room, but preoccupied with a mountain of paperwork that made her brow furrow and her jaw clench. Every now and again she would thrust a document into the hands of a nervous looking male and send him away. Her lack of focus had only increased Glimmers ire, as she screamed at her several times. Catra’s composure held up for the most part, though she had thrown a few pointed barbs herself about the Rebellion’s lack of success and intelligence about what had happened in the Horde. Each pointed word had landed and, after three hours, Double Trouble had called a halt to proceedings which had given them the information they needed but done nothing to improve relations between the two groups. It had left Adora with a throbbing head. 

The soft knocking left her know that her visit was neither Glimmer nor Bow, they still just burst in as they had when they were all teens. Cautiously, she opened the door, not sure if she wanted anybody to see her, and saw Perfuma looking at her with a warm expression. Adora moved aside and Perfuma took the invitation, moving into the room and perching on the edge of the bed. 

Adora closed the door and briefly let her forehead rest against it, feeling exhausted to her bones. She had spent days rebuilding decimated towns, that had not left her as fatigued as she felt after just a few days in Oasis. It seemed like she was far more well equipped to deal with physical exertion, it seemed, than the emotional toll this place had wrought on her. Taking a breath she pulled away from the door and joined the plant princess on the bed, noticing that the other woman was wearing her sandals, an unusual sight to see when they were inside, and was carrying a small hemp bag.

“Going somewhere?” She pushed out a smile as she spoke.

“I’m heading out to the orphanage where Scorpia lives. She invited me to go and see it in the afternoon, once the children were home . I wondered it you’d like to join me?” Perfuma had reached out and taken one of Adora’s hands in her long fingered grasp, soothingly running a thumb over the back. 

“Oh, um, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Adora dropped her eyes from the sympathetic ones opposite.

“Adora, I think it’s just what you need to take your mind off of things. You’re living in you’re head. Scorpia asked me to invite you, she thought it would be good for the ex-Horde children to see you and that you might like to see them. You can show them how good you are at games.” She gave the hand in hers a gentle squeeze. “If t’s too much, you can always come back.”

Adora was quiet for a long time, torn between a desire for a distraction and not wanted to infect others with her sorrow. A finger came under her chin and lifted her face until she could see the compassion in dark eyes.

“Come on, I bet the kids will love you.” The few children that came and went from Brightmoon all adored the part-time goddess because of her childlike playfulness. Perfuma rose and held out her hand. Adora shook her head ruefully and let herself be pulled up before going over and slipping on her battered boots.

“Lead the way,” the First One hadn’t been to the orphanage and was curious.

“We’ll go together.” Perfuma linked their arms and they made their way down the hall, side by side.

The streets of Capital were bustling in the mid-afternoon. Though Adora had seen the chaos of children tumbling into the market when school let out, she hadn’t really taken notice of the other hustle and bustle. There were people dressed in every style buzzing in and out of stores. Parents holding the hands of young and older children alike, towing them beside them. Whenever Adora saw parents and children she felt a pang of loss over the fact that she had never known that kind of care, no matter what Shadow Weaver tried to suggest.

Perfuma watched how blue eyes devoured the signs of family and domesticity around them and filed it away as something she would have to sit the other woman down and talk about when they got home. Today, though, was about getting Adora out of her head, not diving in deeper. She tugged on her arm and they made their way down an alleyway towards the orphanage. It was Perfuma’s third visit to the orphanage. 

She had taken a walk there by herself the night before, drawn to seek out the tall Scorpioni woman when she couldn’t sleep. She had found her sitting on one of the swings out front of the building. It had been late and most of the lights inside the building had been out. Scorpia had been silhouetted by a streetlamp placed in the playground, her white hair seeming to glow and she gently swayed. The willowy woman had been drawn to take a seat on the empty swing to her side and for a time they had just drifted beside each other in silence. Scorpia had leant her head against a chain and looked at the blond though her hair.

They had’t said a lot, it had just felt naturally to drift trough the air side by side exchanging occasional words in the stillness. By the time that Perfuma had felt centred enough to leave and head back to her hotel room, she hadn’t wanted to leave. Being near the bigger woman was warm and comforting, her gentle aura soothing a part of Perfuma that she hadn’t known needed to be soothed. When she had said a soft ‘goodnight’, Scorpia had surged to her feet and walked forward, stopping just shy of touching distance and rubbing a claw to the back of her neck, clearly fighting to maintain eye contact. When the former soldier asked her to come back tomorrow she could do nothing else than agree.

Now, she and Adora were nearing the same playground, so different from her first two visits. Where previously it had been quiet and almost deserted, now noise screamed out of the place. As they turned the corner they were met with dozens of children laughing, shouting and screaming at each other as they poured themselves over and around the play equipment. The smaller children were darting around their bigger counterparts and the place felt full of life and hope. Older children were in the larger, empty area to the side of the building playing a team game with a ball and moving fast, while others sat and cheered them on. It was as alien an environment to Perfuma as to Adora. 

Adora let her eyes scan the children wondering if all of the human and lizard-kin were former Horde, or whether they had just found and taken in orphans along the way. There were almost as many young magicats as non-magicats and they moved with all the grace of water among the others who looked lumbering by comparison. She wondered if she had looked like that beside Catra when they were children? She wondered what Catra’s life would have been if that ship had never crashed…letting her mind go down that path was not what she was here for so she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

With her eyes closed she was taken completely unaware as a ball sailed towards her face and ricocheted off of her forehead. Her eyes snapped open, fists coming up by instinct to protect herself as her eyes darted around looking for her attacker. All she saw in front of her was a sheepish looking red headed boy, toeing at the ground and not looking at her. A few inches in front of his feet sat a bright blue ball. It only took her a moment to realise what had happened. 

“Hey, kid, it’s ok. Come get your ball.” She bent to retrieve it and held it out to him. He looked at her with caution as she moved forward and she could see an echo of herself in his alertness around an adult. He looked to be around fourteen, so seven when the Horde fell. Old enough to know that adults were not safe.

“Thanks. Sorry it hit you.” He grabbed the ball and held it to his chest as though afraid she would take it back. He started to run off towards his friends, who had all been watching the interaction, then came to a sudden halt before turning to give Adora a hard look, praising her dispassionately from head to toe. “Wanna play?”

Adora nodded mutely, taken aback at the offer. She looked over at Perfuma who was surrounded by little boys and girls who were touching the flowers that adorned her dress with wonder. She pointed in the direction of the waiting teens and Perfuma waved her off with a big smile. Adora ran to join the group of teen who ranged from thirteen to seventeen and after a very brief introduction found herself caught up in a fast game that involved kicking the ball to others in the group and dodging tackles around the waist.

Perfuma watched the other blond beaming as she was taken down at the knees by a stocky girl and had the ball stollen. She excused herself from the small children around her, laughing softly as they groaned and promising that she would back out as soon as she found Scorpia. At the mention of the large woman’s name the children’s eyes shone with happiness and Perfuma wondered if she looked the same when she thought of her.

Walking into the building, she saw more children sprawled out, playing on devices and reading books or talking. There were a smattering of adults here, and she caught the eye of a large, spike man with blue skin. He stood, dislodging the feet of a boy who had thrown them over him as he sprawled with a book open in front of him. 

“Can I help you, Princess?” His voice was gruff and low, holding more than a hint of suspicion. He obviously knew who she was.

“Hello, I was invited by Scorpia. I was wondering if you could tell me where I can find her?” That seemed to allay his concerns and he directed her where to go. “You should probably know that Adora is outside playing with the children.” 

“Is she now.” His eyes were far away as he looked towards the door. She thanked him and went to find Scorpia.

By the time Adora had been trounced at several games, half of which she was sure the children were making the rules of as they went, she was breathing hard and had a fine sheen of seat on her face. Before she could be pulled into another game, she dropped to the floor beside the spectating kids and sprawled out. After a little good natured heckling they were soon preoccupied in a game that seemed to be a mix of wrestling and catch from what she could tell.

Watching them she let her mind drift before she flopped onto her back. There had never been play like this in the Horde. There had been very little down time at all. The best way to keep your child soldiers in check was to keep them too tired for teen rebellion. It wasn’t the first time she thought of all that she had missed out on, but surrounded by the happy sounds of children set free from her fate it didn’t seem so bad. She was almost dozing when a big shadow fell over her, causing her to jump up. 

“Have the kids been treating you gently?” Scorpia was smiling widely, looking away and towards the boys and girls who obviously possessed super human stamina.

“Oh yeah, I could have kept going for hours but I wanted to give them a chance.” A teen girl to her right snorted loudly and rolled her eyes, Adora found herself a little offended.

“I’m sure that’s what happened.” She was obviously holding back laughter. “I left Perfuma in the library. I was wondering if you would like to stay for dinner?” She looked very hopeful.

“Is Perfuma staying?” Adora started to worry at her lip.

“Yes, I assured her we had plenty of veggies.” 

“Great, sounds great.” They stood awkwardly, neither had been friends in the Horde and during the war their interactions had been clouded by a lot of things.

“Wanna come in and have a tour?” Scorpia was the first to break the silence.

“Sure.” Adora waved to the kids who were too occupied to notice and followed Scorpia inside. 

By the time the two of them reached the library, Adora was certain that there was nothing going on in Oasis except people who were trying to build a better life. Nobody who could care for children so carefully could be doing anything bad. The children that ran around freely, the adults that interacted wit them with ease and all of the toys and amenities put in place all screamed love to her. She had been particularly impressed with all the climbing walls dotted inside and outside the building. She could imagine a very young Catra, more mane than child, throwing herself up them and laughing down at her for being too slow and too clumsy to keep up.

In the library Perfuma was sitting on a big, overstuffed couch with a tiny child leaning up against her and staring at the big book that she was holding on her lap. Perfuma’s voice was low and very animated as expressive ears twitched to acknowledge their entrance but the kitten stayed fixed on the story. She held her very fluffy tail in one pudgy fist running the tip of it rhythmically over her cheek while her other hand held a hand full of the woman’s dress. 

Adora stood very still by the door as Scorpia walked in and sat on the other side of the child who leaned back and snuggled into her. It was the same very small magicat that she had seen in Catra’s arms when she had learned the terrible truth behind the other woman’s origins. Noticing that Scorpia was looking at her with a question in her eyes, Adora shuffled towards a battered looking armchair opposite the couch and lowered herself down, watching the child all the while.

Unlike the previous day, the little one was awake, her huge yellow eyes staring at Perfuma in wonder as her voice carried the story to her. Now that she wasn’t tucked into Catra’s chin, Adora could pick out more details. Her ears were a little smaller than she ever remembered her friend’s being, and topped with long tufts of hair that were possibly the most adorable thing she had ever seen. The mottled colour of her fur, mostly so dark it was almost black and interspersed with large patches of ruddy brown, highlighted her small features. One eye surrounded by light fur and the other dark, imitating Catra’s bi-coloured eyes. Adora wanted to ask about her, but the words stuck in her throat.

Yarsha had been so engrossed in the story that pretty new person was telling her that she barely registered Scorpia walk into the room. The comfortingly familiar presence that settled behind her all of a sudden was welcome and the kitten snuggled into the warmth, never taking her focus off of the story. She stroked her face with her tail, enjoying the feeling that reminded her of Ra. She hated when her Ra had to go to work before bedtime but Scorpia would put her to bed. 

The lanky blond’s voice stuttered out as the sound of a bell rang out loudly through the room, and the whole of the complex. It made the two visitors jump at its unexpected appearance. Scorpia laughed at their reaction, and Yarsha finally noticed the third adult in the room who had let out a gasp at the dinner bell. She scrutinised her with a glower on her adorable little face, not looking away even when Scorpia scooped her up and put her on her shoulders.

“Dinnertime everyone!” Scorpia’s voice was cheerful as she playfully jostled the child who couldn’t keep up her suspicious glaring through her giggles.

Scorpia led the way, Perfuma behind and Adora lagging at the back. She had noticed the odd look the little girl had given her and felt unreasonably deflated by it. In the halls children were streaming towards a large central room. Scorpia had shown her the dining hall on their brief tour, but now as she approached and heard the cacophony of happy noises she realised that this wasn’t a canteen for young cast offs, it was a dining room for children who were loved. 

The men and women standing behind the every were already merely chatting to the children as they selected their food. Around big tables, children of all ages and races sat together, the few adults who also lived there scattered around the room. The delicious smells of the food filled the air and Adora felt her mouth water as she continued to play follow the leader. Scorpia stopped and lifted the kitten into her arms and they exchanged some quiet words until a little arm pointed at a particular table. Scorpia nodded and set her down, watching her run off towards the group that was already there.

“Hey, so Yarsha want’s to go sit over there today, so I’m going to get her food and mine and sit with that group. You guys are welcome to sit there or you can join one of the groups of kids. When you’re ready just go and get whatever you want.” Scorpia was so at ease here, clearly beloved by all as she walked among youths who happily greeted her.

Adora was about to follow when a group of kids called out to her and she saw the teens she had been playing with earlier waving her over. Making her way over, the leader, a short girl with pigtails, blushed scarlet and asked if she would like to sit with them. She didn’t have the heart to say no, so agreed before collecting herself a tray for food. While she waited in line, seeing that Perfuma had joined the toddler and the scorpioni, she wondered even more at the child. Her name was Yarsha. It was unusual, Adora wondered if it was a magicat name. She hadn’t spoken to enough magicats to get a gage on how their names worked to be able to tell. She was becoming more and more certain that the little one was Catra’s child. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, her feelings were too tumultuous to tell.

Finally seated with the big group of boisterous teens, Adora found herself talking and laughing as she absently ate the food. It was delicious, but the company had all of her attention. She asked about their hobbies and school. A few shyly asked questions about how she had got away from the Horde and others about what it was like to be She-ra. She hadn’t considered, outside on the court, that they knew who she was. She was surprised that they didn’t seem to feel anything other than curiosity about her.

As the evening wore on, Adora found that she had no desire to leave this place. It was everything that she wished growing up in the Fright Zone had been. She had found herself whisked away by an ever growing group of children to a side room where there were cards and board games. She played game after game with different groups, laughing and hearing their stories, telling some of her own. At some point Scorpia and Perfuma had joined them, the toddler nowhere in sight. 

Excusing herself, Adora made her way upstairs to use Scorpia’s rest room. The bigger woman had told her not to use the kids bathrooms as they were always busy around mealtimes, so she followed the directions she had been given and ran up the stairs two at a time. She felt weird going into the other woman’s room by herself, and she tried not to be nosy as she walked to the door in the back of the room and used the bathroom.

On her way back out, she wasn’t looking as she entered the hallway and was taken completely off guard when a blur of fur leapt up at her and collided with her chest. She hit the floor with a thud as her butt connected with the polished wood. She looked down in confusion and found a pair of yellow eyes looking at her in confusion.

“You’re not mine!” The little voice sounded sullen.

“No?” Adora was still trying to process how she had ended up on the floor. She was supposed to be a well trained soldier and been taken out by a toddler.

“Who are you?” Small, clawed hands came up and grasped her face, smooshing her cheeks and moving her head from side to side as she examined the adult as she might a bug under a microscope. 

“I’m Adora.” Her words came out muffled through her squeezed face.

“You have pretty eyes!” It was declared with finality, as though the little one had decided it was very important. 

“Thank you?” The situation was feeling stranger by the minute.

“You’re a silly!” The words were shouted in her face as the kitten seemed to make a decision and jumpopff of her and started skipping back down the hall. 

Adora rose to her feet and turned to go back down to the games room. She had barely taken a step when she hear the slap of bare feet getting closer and then a tiny hand was inserted into her own. Instinctively she closed her hand around it and looked down to meet toe big, sleepy eyes of the little girl.

“You come with me, silly Adora.” And then she was being pulled down the hallway, passing a couple of doors before she was led into a darkened room, lit softly purple by a nightlight.

“Hey, I don’t think I should be in here.” Her voice was a whisper and her eyes were flicking around the room, taking in the small bed pushed against the wall and the larger one in the middle of the room, almost certain now whose room this must be.

“Why not?” The girl had let go of her hand and was twirling around. 

“Because I’m a stranger.” 

“You isn’t. You know Scorpia and the thin lady. You must be nice.” She clearly hadn’t seen the blond at the meeting yesterday before she fell asleep. She took Adora’s hand again and walked over to her little bed. “I’m tireded. YOU tell me story now.”

Feeling helpless to resist, and having put more than one of the children of the castle to bed before, while babysitting, she followed and helped the child get under her covers. She pulled them up and made sure that she was all snuggled up. The bed was low, making it easy for a child to get in and out, and so Adora sat on the floor beside it and began to tell a story that she had read a few times about a girl and her pet lamb. It didn’t take long before she could hear the tell-tale sounds of a kitten falling into a deep sleep. She kept speaking a little longer until she was sure the child wouldn’t wake up, and then rose to her feet to leave. On her way to the door she passed a desk crowded with colouring books and papers. In the dim light she was able to make a photograph sitting in a frame on the one uncrowded part of the desk. Her fingers itched to pick It up and look closer, but she resisted, instead just squinting at it.

It was easy to make out Catra, her luminous eyes shining through the glass. Beside her was another magicat, hard to make out as they seemed to be much darker in colour, a pair of green eyes and dazzlingly white teeth all that she could really see. What did stand out was how closely the two were together, caught in an embrace it seemed.

Adora forced herself out of the room before she did something rash and ran down the stairs.  
___________________

Seeing the picture of a happy couple, and meeting what was obviously their child, left Adora feeling dazed. It was hard to reconcile the angry, bitter woman that Catra had become during the war with somebody who was able to build a life where she seemed to be happy and embraced. Adora couldn’t help but wonder who the magicat in the picture was, and whether she might run into her on her walk back to the hotel. Would it be awkward if she did? Would she be the one to stop the dark furred woman and say ‘hello, I met your child and I know your partner?’ Or would Adora just scuttle away like the snoop that she was?

Why could the other’s move forward with her life and she couldn’t? It was a question that had been plaguing her for months, maybe years, as she watched life move around her in Brightmoon. Here it seemed so much more magnified. Maybe there was something wrong with her, or maybe it was a price she paid for being She-ra?

She let out a gusty sigh as the hotel filled her vision. Rather than going inside, she found herself skirting the building and continuing her walk, mind drudging up moments where she could have been happy, but never quite content.

*********

“Morning pretty,” a raspy voice burred in her ear as she drifted up from sleep. A fuzzy smile curled her lips as she buried her face in the rest of sleep mussed hair beside her and drew the smaller woman closer.

Soft kisses peppered along her neck and jaw, making her giggle and squirm as soft puffs of air were blown into her ear. She reached out and pulled the naked body closer to hers, feeling smooth skin slide against her own. She felt goosebumps pebble on the other woman’s skin and felt a pang that she often felt when they were intimate. She enjoyed touching Zil, knowing that’s she brought her pleasure and she took pleasure in return but there was always a little something missing. A little emptiness.

Zildari’s hands began to wander across her abs, scraping her short nails along the lines of muscle. Adora squirmed, torn between giving in to the sweet morning seduction and pulling away as she had been more and more recently. She’d look into pale green eyes and see only the now, never a hint of the future in their depths. 

She had thought, at the beginning, that those feelings would come. Desire and lust had been easy, Zildari was sexy and mean, a little dangerous to be around and the two of them had escaped from trouble that the other caused more than once. It was maddening, and funny and familiar in a way that hurt her chest and more and more made it hard to breath.

Adora reached down a hand and drew Zil’s away from where it had been creeping, drawing it up and placing a kiss in her palm and seeing a troubled look on the other woman’s face. Adora pulled away a little so that she could sit up and draw her knees to her chest, sheet tucked around her as she made a barrier between the two of them. She hadn’t known that today would be the day, but looking at the woman who was now tense beside her, it obviously was.

“Zil, where do you see us going?” Only blissful moments ago she had been sleeping and woken up gently and now she knew that she was about to break it. Maybe she should have done it a while ago, maybe it wouldn’t be over now? She was pretty sure it would.

“I don’t know what you’re asking, Adora.” Her tone was tight, pinched. The elfin woman had a way of becoming hard as diamond after being soft and pliable moments before. It was something the blond admired in her and knew that she lacked in herself.

“Do you think you’ll ever be able to love me?” Would anybody? She knew she was lovable as a friend, but never anything more.

Zildari’s hard stare suddenly broke and she looked away. It was answer enough, but the slender woman sighed and looked her in the eye as she answered truthfully, “No. I think you’re really fun to be with, and great in bed,” she smirked lasciviously to try to lighten her words, “but you’re never really here with me. You’re asking if I’ll ever love you, when you should know, like I do, that you’ll never love me. I realised it a while ago and made my peace with it. No use getting head over heels. I knew we were a passing fancy.” 

Adora felt like she had been slapped. Zildari’s words were not harsh, but mostly cooly delivered and reflected back to her a part of herself that she feared. It would have been easier if Zildari had slapped her and called her an idiot. She watched, tongue tied, as Zil got up from the bed and pulled on her clothes. It was a rare stay at Brightmoon for the pair who spent most of their rendezvous at Zil’s home. 

“I’ll see you around Adora.” Zildari threw a smile at the woman still curled up on the bed, speechless and absurdly relieved. 

********

Adora sat on a bench, pulling her knees up to her chest as she thought about that day. Why could Catra move on and build life while she was left always searching and forever lost? Wasn’t she supposed to be the hero? Shouldn’t she get a happy ending? 

____________________

After a week in Oasis it was almost time for the Alliance members to head back to Brightmoon and debrief Queen Angella. Some progress seemed to have been made between the two groups, with even Glimmer agreeing that the people of Oasis had technology and expertise to share. It had been agreed that Mermista and Perfuma would liaise with the desert civilisation, lending their magic on request in order to help with the agricultural needs of the city as it grew. That had been a concession that the council had agreed on, that the Princesses, if they came, would be allowed to use their magic as long as it was not against any of the people. That had made Glimmer baulk, but it had been agreed and a contact to that effect had been signed.

There had been some question of why they had not seen Entrapta on this visit, Bow particularly disappointed, and been told that she was working on a project in her spire on the on the far edge of the shield that she could not leave unattended. They were all welcome to return to visit the former princess of Dryl at any time. One thing that had been negotiated between the two groups was that there would need to be transparency on both sides.

They would leave in the morning and Adora had gathered her things, what little there had been, and found herself itching with pent up energy. Taking a leaf out of Perfuma’s book, she left the hotel and started to walk the streets of Capital. The day had faded into night almost without her noticing and the streets of the main area were almost eerily quiet with only the odd person walking passed on their way home. Many of the shops and buildings were closed up and she found her feet walking a now familiar path towards Lonnie and the boys’ bar.

As she got closer the sights and sounds of people having a good time became intoxicating as moved past the smaller stalls and restaurants of the Bazaar area. Her stomach growled and her mouth watered at the smells around her as she watched people walking around with meat on sticks and bread wrapped parcels, juice running down their chins.

Getting to the cloth tented building, Adora walked in and made her way to take a seat at the bar. She had been so focused on getting in and taking a seat, eyes scanning the stage to see if Kyle was performing, that she hadn’t noticed the person sitting two seats down.

A glass slid noisily across the bar, stopping when it hit Adora’s folded hands, pulling her attention away from the stage and to her right where she found herself face-to-face with Catra who raised an eyebrow and shot her eyes towards the full glass of beer that she had send sliding towards the blond. Speechless, Adora took a hold of the beer, bringing it to her lips and taking a sip as a way to cover the fact that she had no words. Catra raised her own half empty class, full of a clear liquid, and took a drink herself.

Adora found herself just staring at the magicat as she put her drink down, licking foam from her lips as she let her eyes travel all over the form beside her. Catra endured her scrutiny, a smirk playing around her lips. This was the closest the two of them had been to each other, no table to separate them, just a closely packed stool. 

Instead of her sand coloured uniform, Catra was dressed in a cropped red shirt, arms bare and hem barely touching her loose fitting black shorts that draped over her thigh and ended just before her knee. Little tufts of fur stuck out haphazardly between the two items of clothing and the fur on her shoulders looked ruffled and carefree. It was a strange mixture of familiar and foreign that she realised the cat-woman was. The colours what she might have worn in the Fright Zone while the fit and the casual nature of them and her pose were something completely new.

The close cropped sides of her hair were less like Scorpia’s undercut had been, and more like the short fur that covered her face, while the rest could have easily been tamed into a mohawk had she wanted, but instead flopped over to the side. Two small braids hung over one exposed ear and were adorned with small silver cuffs that she didn’t remember seeing at their meetings. Noticing the other woman looking, Catra raised a hand and played with the cuffs almost self consciously.

Finally, seeming to grow tired at the stretch of silence between them, Catra took another drink, waving a bartender over and speaking lowly into his ear. He nodded and soon disappeared, Catra’s dual coloured eyes finding her own blue again.

“Hey, Adora, how you been?” There was a strange, rye laugh in her voice that seemed more bemused than sarcastic.

“Hey, Catra. I’ve been good.” Had she been? A part of her felt like she was lying, after having seen how much Catra had achieved during her journey into adulthood, and how little she had to show for the passage of years between them.

They were quiet again, letting the soft music from the stage and the low hum of people talking around them wash over them. The sharp sound of a bowl being placed on the bar startled Adora, making her look down where she saw that the bartender had returned with a bowl of something deep fried. 

“Thanks!” Catra’s voice piped up and Adora looked at her again. “What? Like I don’t know you’re probably starving. It might have been a long time, Adora, but I doubt you’ve change that much.” It felt like a punch in the gut to hear those words fall from the fanged mouth.

“You have.” The words were quiet as she reached out for the lightly battered vegetable and popped it in her mouth to save herself from saying anymore.

“Yeah, guess I have.” Catra’s voice had a far away quality.

“You have a daughter.” Adora wasn’t sure if she meant it as a statement or a question. She shoved some more of the delicious crispy veggies in her mouth to distract herself from saying more.

“I heard you met Yarsha properly. Cute little handful, isn’t she?” In fact the little kit had had a lot to say about the pretty eyed woman who had told her a bedtime story.

“How?” The older woman nearly choked as she asked it, turning scarlet.

“Did nobody at Brightmoon give you ‘the talk’?” Catra’s eyebrow was raised and a broad grin covered her face as she teased the woman beside her. It was the most familiar thing that had happened between them. 

“You know that isn’t what I meant! You never wanted to be a mom when we were growing up. You hated the younger kids, and now you have one and live with dozens of them.” It really was the most puzzling thing.

“As you said, I’ve changed a lot. And I’m not a ‘mom’ I’m a Ra. It’s…different.” She wasn’t sure that she wanted to share any of that with Adora, a virtual stranger at this point.

“Oh,” it was more a puff of air than a sound. Sitting together it was hard to remember the angry enemy that Catra had been and all too easy to just desperately miss the girl who had been her best friend. 

“No little She-ra’s running around then?” She took a drink and waited, noticing Adora colour again.

“No. Just me. Mermista has a child though, everybody else is still getting their act together I guess.” It did seem so odd that Catra and her other old squad mates were parents, while the Alliance members who had been raised in loving homes did not.

“Must be nice to live your life at a snails pace. One day maybe I’ll be able to slow down.” There was something sad in her eyes at the words and Adora felt the urge to reach out and cover her hand but held back.

“Do you have somebody?” She assumed the female magicat in the picture must be somewhere.

“I did. She’s gone now.” The words were soft, revealing how much she had cherished that person.

“Gone?” Catra shook her head even before the other woman had finished the word.

“Not today, Adora.” She stood from the bar, and Adora feared she had said the wrong thing. Catra unexpectedly patted in her firmly on the shoulder. “Maybe I’ll see you again before another decade goes by.” 

She was through the door behind the bar and out of the blond’s sight before she could think to say a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fabulous candycornsnake has done some fanart for this fic. go take a look - her Tace is beautiful.  
> https://www.instagram.com/p/CK-ZbVqgCz3/?igshid=f1l77vnd1pkt


	10. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snap-shots of Tace and Catra's life together over a period of 5 years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little something soft for Valentine's Day (and it moves the story along too - so yay!) 
> 
> No Adora though...that comes later, promise.
> 
> Oh, forgot to say when ‘alpha’ is used here it is NOT in an A/O/B way - just a dominant/leader animal way.

Tired to her marrow, Catra dropped into the seat behind her desk and flopped over until her head was resting on the scattered paperwork there. Even her tail was limp and lifeless as she let out a groan into the empty tent. Her shoulder was throbbing viciously but she had too much to do to go to the infirmary. It would pass. She was used to working through pain, physical and mental. If she could do it for the good of the Horde then she could do it for this place, this oasis that they were building in the desert for the former Horde like her and the mercenaries who had followed her. The sooner it was finished the sooner they would all be able to move on.

Closing her eyes, and telling herself it was just for her to catch her breath, she was startled awake by the tent flap opening with a thwack. She jerked up in the seat, momentarily forgetting her shoulder until pain raced through it and down her arm. A roar, a honest to goodness roar, pulled from her chest and filled the tent. It had happened a couple of times in the last few months, the first time she had scared herself. She had never been able to do it before and had put it down to the physical changes that came with her delayed development.

“Wow, easy there alpha.” The voice that caused her ears to twitch was teasing, although laced with concern. 

Tace had a habit of using terms that Catra didn’t quite understand. It should have been frustrating, but the other woman was always kind and never patronising when she explained something or other about their shared heritage. Alpha though, was something that she had been called by others from the ship, and it made her uncomfortable once she had found out what it meant. Sometimes, when she didn’t want to seem like a child to the girl who had looked after her as an infant, that level of vulnerability still made her uncomfortable, she would head out to the ship and search the data banks for information. Having been prepared to start over on a whole new world, the magicats had thought of everything to preserve their culture and all the answers were there. It had been easy to find what an ‘alpha’ was, and Catra was afraid of the implications.

“Don’t call me that!” The words came out weary and lacking any bite but as she looked at Tace she saw her eyes crease with concern as she quickly moved through the space between them.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I was only teasing. You’re roar is just so powerful.” She reached out and ran a hand through the seated woman’s short, dusty hair, causing a small shower of dust and stand to rain down on the desktop.

Catra reached up to take the hand from her hair, intending to bring it to her lips for a kiss, forgetting her injured shoulder. As she moved, the pain grew so intense that for a moment she saw white flashes dance across her vision and swayed dangerously on her chair. Tace reached out quickly, catching her by the front of her shirt, hearing it tear, as she was careful not to touch her arm as she kept her upright.

“Catra, did you go to see a medic?” Worry had replaced the light tone that she had had when she entered the room, and despite the pain Catra felt warmed by the evidence of her affection.

“It’s fine.” It would have sounded more convincing if her words weren’t slurred by pain.

“It is not ‘fine’. You almost passed out just then,” she saw the shorter woman open her mouth to refute her words and promptly glared down at her until her mouth snapped shut. “I saw you fall off of that ledge, I know you’re hurting.”

“We’re cat’s, Tace, we fall. We land on our feet. We start over.” She pulled her shirt out of the black furred girls grasp with her good hand and tried to straighten up and project strength.

“Did you land on your feet?” Tace pushed Catra’s chair away from the table and eased her way between her and it. 

Catra tried to hold the fiery, concerned stare, but her eyes slid away to the side. Over the last year, so much had changed for the former cadet that she often felt overwhelmed by the genuine, caring emotions that came from others. It was all too easy for her to retreat back to being bitter and lash out to cover her weakness. She had tried to push Tace away more than once over the last few months. Better to be alone than open herself up to hurt, but after their first kiss she had stubbornly refused to let Catra sabotage their still young relationship. 

“No.” Catra’s words were mumbled to the floor.

Tace sighed exasperatedly. She cared so much for the other woman. She was everything that Tace had ever imagined in a mate (not that she had told her that, if there was a sure way to make her run the other way it was to go too fast with the damaged woman) but never hoped to find. She could go slowly with her, they were both barely more than kits and had all the time in the world. It was simply vexing to watch her make so much progress with how she saw herself, only to run back to her old self destructive ways when she was hurt or afraid. How she wanted Catra to know that she could be afraid with her!

Tace reached out and cupped the sharp chin, lifting those haunted eyes up to meet her own. Catra put up a token resistance but allowed herself to be moved and met the green eyes brimming with affection in front of her. Tace traced a thumb over the furred jaw, ruffling the soft hairs there, feeling the tense body begin to relax fractionally.

“I saw you fall four stories. I couldn’t see how you fell from where I was but I heard the thud.” She traced a gentle hand from jaw, down her neck, careful to keep her touches feather light. She extended a careful claw and slid it under the collar of the dirty grey shirt and sliced a clean line, letting the two sides of the fabric fall away revealing the quickly swelling joint. 

It was hard to see the bruising through the thick fur, but the puffy quality was easy to see and as the skin stretched the furred pulled apart giving hints of angry pinkness. With the same tender care that she would use to pick up a butterfly, Tace set her hand over the wound and was shocked by the heat radiating from it. She was gratified that the other woman remained relaxed under her touch.

“Fine,” it was as sigh of surrender. “I fell on my shoulder. I slipped, and before I could think what to do I was on the ground in pain.” Catra moved forward, resting her head against the other woman’s abdomen. 

“Oh, my sweet, strong girl. You don’t have to try to build every orphanage and home yourself. I know you know how to delegate, I’ve seen you do it. You don’t have to keep proving that you’re worth something to everyone. We all know.” Tace was bent almost double to rest her head against the one nestling loser and closer to her stomach. She purred and pulled her hand away from the wound to rest both of them on the back of the bared neck and knead softly.

“I know.” And she did. Intellectually. Catra knew that over the last three years she had more than made up for whatever atrocities she had performed in her time as an active soldier during the war. The nagging self loathing that had been beaten into her over seventeen years was harder to shake and made it hard to cast the guilt aside.

“Take me to the medical tent, wise one.” They both laughed, Catra wincing a little as she moved stiffly out of the chair, relief flooding through them both for very different reasons. 

After nine months, it was hard to imagine a time before Tace. After their first kiss, which had taken both girls by surprise, Catra had done the inevitable and run away. Not physically, she could never leave this place and the people that she had found, but emotionally she had withdrawn and thrown as much of herself into taking down the Horde as she could. She had worn herself down so far; planning, building and hiding from Tace’s hurt and confused eyes, that eventually something had had to give. 

She had found herself, late one night, standing outside the door of the room that used to be hers. Most of the young magicats were living in large tents and partially finished structures, but as Tace was acting as their leader it seemed only right that she had a little privacy. Or that’s what Catra had told herself when she had offered the space to the younger woman. So what if a part of her felt warmed by the fact that Tace was sleeping in her bed? She knew that Tace would be asleep and almost left, but her traitorous hand was knocking on the beam that held up the entrance before she could. 

Tace had called her in, as though she had been expecting her. She had been sitting up on the slim bed, sheets pooled around her waist and the weak light of a lamp glimmering off of her fur where it peeked out from her sleep shirt. Catra had walked to her, eyes never leaving the girl that she had been avoiding for days, drawn as though on a string until her knees hit the edge of the bed. She had felt very small, as she had muttered an apology more heartfelt than any she had ever given and yet much more simple. Tace had gently chided in return, Catra deflating until her wrist had bee firmly grasped and she had been pulled onto the bed that was barely big enough for one, let alone two. Tace had pushed her onto her back, draping her body across her and planting a possessive kiss on her lips before pulling the covers over them. It had been their first night together, and they had just slept, but it had been perfect and after six months they had shared a lot more of themselves in that cramped, perfect bed. 

As she settled the dirty hand of her uninjured arm into the black furred one, she squeezed just hard enough to make the other woman turn and look at her quizzically. Catra leant forward and took her lips in a tender kiss that made the taller woman catch her breath and almost forget how to respond before she moulded her lips to the demanding ones that covered them.

“I love you, you know?” The words passed between their barely separated lips.  
_____________________

Walking down one of the brightly lit corridors of the ship, hand clasped comfortingly in Tace’s, Catra felt relaxed. Entrapta had called them here to see something ‘really astounding!’ That she had found in one of the secured areas. Even a year after finding the ship, there were still areas that they had not searched - between the pressure of causing the uprising, the need to build a city almost overnight and getting to grips with the amazing terraforming equipment the ship had been largely neglected for its other potential.

As soon as Entrapta had been brought here from the Fright Zone she had got straight to work with a feverish glee. Without her they would never have been able to bring up the terraforming equipment and get it to work with 150% efficiency. Entrapta had pawed over plans and schematics from the Halfmoon until she was expert - it hadn’t taken long. That had led to the start of grass, and the hope of crops and weather systems hidden behind the shield. 

The pre-fabricated buildings that had been stowed in a good half of the gargantuan vehicle had meant that with hard work and all hands at work, the centre of the new society had gone up easily, as had the small farm houses they had arranged far on the outskirts of where they hoped to have arable land. The magicats had really been prepared for almost anything.

They rounded the corner to Entrapta’s purloined laboratory in the buried ship. She had picked the biggest one and had equipment brought in from all the others so that she could work on things without having to stop. They always made sure that she wasn’t down there alone, a few ex-Horde would camp out in one of the empty cabins. The place looked chaotic but to Catra’s Entrapta trained eye, she could see that there was an order to the madness. The purple haired princess was nowhere to be seen around the chunks of metal and coils of wire. The two women began to walk through it, careful not to scratch themselves on exposed wires or knock down any of the precarious piles. 

“‘Trapta!” Catra called out loudly, voice echoing around the metal walled room and making Tace flinch as it hit her sensitive ears.

“Are you sure she’s here?” Tace was still scanning the room for any hint of movement with her predators eyes. 

“Oh, she’s around here somewhere, trust me. Eventually we’ll have to prise her out of here with a crow bar to make sure she gets some air.” There was affection in her voice as she spoke of the scientist.

“If you say so.” Tace went to sit in the chair in front of the bank of monitors, only to scream as the chair flew out from under hear, clattering away on its casters as the impish woman shot out of the vents and crouched beside the prone woman.

“We have a chair, Tace, you don’t have to sit on the floor.” Entrapta was ever earnest and often oblivious; Catra let out a peel of delighted laughter as Tace looked at her, unamused. Catra mouthed ‘what?’ And went to help her up.

“Why are you guys here?” Entrapta’s voice was already muffled behind her welding mask as she moved behind sone metal sheeting.

“You asked us to come, ‘Trapta,” Catra gently reminded her. It was easily possible that between making the call for them and now the woman with the prehensile hair had completely forgotten, mind whizzing onto the next thing. 

“Did I?” She popped up like a meerkat, flipping the mask up with a tendril of hair and rubbing her chin in thought with another as her hands remained preoccupied out of sight. 

“Yes?” Tace was looking between the two women in confusion. She was used to Catra being decisive and more than a little impatient with people, especially when she was working on a project. She’d been trying to help her relax a little, yet here she was softly amused by the scatterbrained scientist.

With a ‘hmmmmm’ Entrapta ducked downed out of sight again. Catra dragged the chair back where it had come from and patted the seat for her puzzled paramour to sit down. Once she was seated, Catra stood behind her and started to massage her shoulders while they waited. It was relaxing and she let her head fall forward as she listened to the sounds of puttering. She was lightly dozing under the strong hands of the other woman when a sudden, incredibly shrill ‘Ah ha!’ Jerked her awake and out of the chair back onto the floor, Catra unable to grab her.

“Tace, you can sit on the chairs you know.” Entrapta’s voice lacked anything but sincerity.

“Yeah, thanks.” Tace winced as she stood again, knowing that she was going to have a lovely bruise on her butt. “Did you remember why you called us?”

“Hmmmm…What?” She was already drifting back to her work, “Oh, yes. There are schematics here to build a large spire. It seems to be very similar to the First Ones towers we have seen. I believe it is a communication station, possibly intended to call the other Magicat arks to the location of the first group to find a home to settle on.” Her eyes were alight with excitement.

Catra and Tace looked at each other, could they call for other magicat’s? It was a hope that came and went quickly. It had been a thousand years, the chances of the other two arks still being out there were slim, they had either settled or been destroyed by the forces that they had run from. 

“What would we use it for?” Catra was thinking of the practical application.

“We could use it to communicate in seconds all over the planet, it’s such a big transmitter. There is also the possibility that we could use the technology to create transportation tech that could mean we go from here to, say, the Kingdom of Snows in an instant…Kinda like Glimmer’s powers, actually.” She threw the name of the princess out without batting an eye.

“That could be helpful when we get to the point that we need to trade with the outside.” Tace could already see Catra ticking over plans.

“Of course, that is just theoretical right now. I wanted the green light.” Had Entrapta ever asked for permission before? Maybe Catra wasn’t the only one changing.

“Go for it Entrapta. Just no reaching out unless you’ve talked with the council.”

“OK!” And that was that. The visor went down and Entrapta threw herself back into her work. It was a clear dismissal.

“Let’s go home.” Catra pulled Tace alone with her as they made their way back into the sun.  
_______________________ 

Catra splayed out her hand on the warm, rounded surface and purred in delight as she felt the tiny form inside kick out into her hand. It was amazing to think that in just two more months, this little kitten would be in their arms. Her life was about to change for the third time in just a handful of years and she couldn’t be happier. Almost seven years since defecting into the desert, five since finding the magicats and freeing her people, she was a long way away from the angry girl who, at sixteen, had wanted to rule the world with her best friend at her side. 

She seldom thought of those days anymore, her life so full of people who cared for her and responsibilities that she chose, that she had no time to live in a past that had tried to break her down to nothing but a weapon. She had risen from those ashes as something tempered nut not hardened. Now, she was someone important, not because of fear, but out of respect for her hard work and care for all of those around her. 

“Hey kitty, I’m you’re Ra.” The word still felt alien in her mouth but she loved it as much as she loved this tiny life and the woman who had helped to make it. In a low voice, full of wonder, she breathed, “Do you know me?” A flurry of wriggles and movements met her words and her heart swelled.

Catra looked at the darker furred magicat and they exchanged a giggle, both still so very young yet with an eternity of life experience behind them. Tace slipped her arm over Catra’s shoulder’s and drew her closer, feeling an answering arm wrap around her waist as their tails entwined. Tace reached out and placed her palm alongside her mate’s on the artificial womb. The pliant, rubbery surface warm and smooth, flexible enough to let the feats inside reach out to it’s parents outside.

“Of course she knows you, she is half of you.” Tace pressed a kiss to Catra’s cheek as she spoke softly to her.

“She’s us.” Catra pulled Tace so close that not a hair could pass between them. This, the three of them in this room, this was what had always been missing from her life. They were a perfect circle, the beginning and the end of everything she could want.

They had found the birth chambers in a rummaging expedition for Entrapta a couple of years ago. The manic princess had put together a few teams with schematics of the ship, and with more time on their hands than ever before, they had begun to search the unstarched to find anything that would help their little home grow. Tace and Catra had been sent to search for medical equipment or drugs. Building a medical facility had been one of their top priorities, alongside the orphanages, but fitting it out had proved to be more difficult that had imagined. 

Going back to the Fright Zone to loot supplies was off the table, almost as soon as the princesses had realised that the deserted nature of the place wasn’t a trap, they had moved in and started to dismantle the place. It was hard to trade for the equipment they needed in the smaller vials and towns and they dare not let people go too far afield for fear of detection. Entrapta had managed to jury rig things here or there, but the more they could locate on the civilisation shaped ship the better. 

The sheer scale of the ship could be overwhelming. It was big enough that all of Oasis was going to sit on top of it. The shield generator and cloak, as Tace had told her the camouflage technology was called, had turned out to be too tied into the ship and its power source to be removed without compromising its effectiveness. Instead, Entrapta had managed to reroute it and now their whole city was enclosed in a protective bubble that hid them from prying eyes or unwanted visitors. Building almost on top of the ship had the added bonus allowing them to tap into the power and bring electricity to every home. 

Getting to the lower level’s med bay, the four on upper floors had already been cleared, took over an hour on foot. It wasn’t helped by the two young women pulling each other into alcoves, making out and feeling each other up in the dim light. Their relationship had become more tactile and playful as they got more and more comfortable with each other. Years together had left them very much in love, mated not long after their first confessions of love. They both still feared that time would be snatched away for them even now, and lived as fully as they could.

Laughing they finally made it to a set of doors that spanned from wall to wall and blocked their path. Catra looked down at the tablet in her hadn’t and saw that they were in the right place. Tace tried entering the standard access code that was usually successful, this time to no avail. The sensor panel bloomed to life, but died when the code was put in. Entrapta had thought of everything though, and a wire was pulled from the pad and inserted into a port at the side. Catra pressed a button and both the tablet in her hands and the panel light up and ran through a series of numbers at ludicrous speed before there was a metallic hiss and the door ground their way open. 

On occasion, some of the old infrastructure of the thousand year old ship needed a little help and the two young women braced themselves in the narrow gap that had opened and pushed until the doors were hidden back in the walls. The lights burst to life and the sterile, shiny area was revealed to them. Each medical bay that they had discovered had been perfectly clean, no dust or sand having broken through the sterilisation seals. It was more disconcerting than the dust motes in the air.

Having seen four other medical units on the ship, Catra had been expecting to see the familiar site of rows of beds, a few closed cubicles and some operating rooms towards the back. Walls lined with cabinets full of medicines and equipment. When she turned away from the door, what she saw left her puzzled and confused. This place had tens of frames holding what looked like flaccid flesh coloured bags that hung limply from them. They were each set on a table with an intricate variety of wires, tubes and cables dangling from the sack. They were widely spaced with a trolley beside each table that seemed to have a long, clear tub on top and a blanket inside. The walls had the familiar cabinets, and she could tell that in the back there was another operating room. 

Catra opened her mouth to ask Tace when she saw that her mate had already walked into the room and was looking around in wonder. Her delicate, long boned hands were hovering over one of the sacks, torn between wanting to touch and being afraid to break something. It was clear that she knew what this place was for. Not wanting to spook the woman who was clearly lost in her own thoughts she moved deliberately, making enough noise that she wouldn’t startle her. Getting behind her, she slipped her hands around the slim waste and placed her head on a convenient shoulder. 

“Hey.” It was the ghost of a whisper picked up by a large ear.

Tace’s whole body relaxed into hers, Catra’s hold tightening to show that she was there. “Hey.” Tace’s voice was like somebody who has stepped into a temple and is left in too much awe to speak.

“What is this place?” Catra peered over the shoulder in front of her and got a better look at the thing on the table. The sack almost looked like flesh and was clearly soft and pliable. There were no visible joins, just one seamless sack with no opening save for where the various tubes entered it. There was something off puttingly organic about it.

“It’s a nursery.” Tace turned in her arms so that they were facing each other. “People like my parents, who wanted to have a baby, would use these to gestate the foetus. The doctors would take material from both parents and join it together before letting it grow inside these. It’s like a womb. Mates who were both male, or both female, could have children together.” 

Mates who were both male, or both female, could have children together. The words rung in Catra’s head. She had never even considered having children, always having thought they were weak when she was one, and then too busy trying to take care of all of the orphans and displaced child soldiers to think of her own. Hearing those words fall from those lips though? That suddenly made things spark in her heart and her mind, swirling images of a tiny kitten with Tace’s eyes running through them. She leaned forward and rested her head against Tace’s neck, feeling both the other girls arms twine around her neck.

That was how they found themselves stood in front of an artificial womb, playing with their unborn daughter as she played tag with their hands. They could see her silhouetted form through the opaque surface of the sack, big ears and tail now easy to see at seven months.  
_____________________

Huge yellow eyes blinked up as a tiny mouth opened in a yawn exposing pink gums. Little mewls and the smacking of lips told the adults watching that she was ready to be fed. The room was filled with the sound of cooing as the adults who had come to see the new arrival fawned over her adorableness. Squeals and laughter filtered through the open doorways as the dozens of older boys and girls ran around and played in the hallways and rooms of the orphanage.

Catra smiled fondly at the group as she went to collect a bottle from the cupboard. She ran her hand across Tace’s shoulders as she passed, finding her hand taken and a kiss pressed to her palm by her smiling mate before she moved away. Tace walked over and scooped the little ball of fur out of Scorpia’s extremely careful claws, patting the big woman’s cheek as she held very still so as not to hurt the new arrival as she was drawn into her Zu’s embrace. Happy little squeaks left the kitten as she nuzzled into Tace’s jaw recognising her scent.

Every one of the adults in the room gasped at the sound. It really was too adorable for words. Catra, bottle in hand, noticed that Kyle had cuddled closer to Rogelio, while Lonnie rested her head on his knee from where she sat on the floor, their own little magicat looking in wonder at the kitten from his seat on the lizard man’s lap. Their other two children had rushed out to play with the orphans, but young Digby was too fascinated by the sight of a baby of his kind. Catra imagined she would have felt the same at his age, before everything got so dark.

Shaking off a momentary pang, a fleeting memory of blond hair and somebody from her life who was missing from her perfect family picture, she handed the bottle over to Tace who had retaken her seat in an armchair, Yarsha cradled in the crook of her arm. Catra settled on the arm of the chair, cupping her hand to the kitten’s shaggy head. She watched lovingly as the smallest of all the magicat’s began to suckle. Yarsha was a new start for her, but more importantly she was a new dawn for the magicat’s. They had gone to space to try to save their species, and this little girl was the first born on an alien world, but she wouldn’t be the last. 

Feeling a nudge from a large fluffy tail, she looked up and saw Tace smiling fondly at her. Catra felt her own face mirror the expression on her mate’s and leaned down to rest their foreheads together, letting the sounds of Scorpia and the other family fade into the background. 

What their little cat would grow up to be was something that they both looked forward to finding out. Whatever it was, it would be perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still a lot of mystery left in all this...  
> All will be revealed!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora starts to make positive changes.  
> Perfuma and Scorpia get cute.  
> What is with Glimmer and Shadow Weaver?  
> Wasn't there a book...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating changing to mature as Adora may not have had a lot of meaningful relationships but she has had quite a lot of trysts.

Usually returning to Brightmoon was a relief. Whether it was coming back after a battle, returning from rebuilding or just slinking back exhausted from a party, there was always a feeling of peace that filled her when she walked into her room. This place, with its plump bed, large balcony and pristine surfaces was her space. This was the first place that she had ever had that she could call her own. She had experienced many firsts here in Brightmoon; first place that was hers, first midnight feast, first kiss, first time… 

Arriving back, Adora walked into her room and pulled the door closed behind her, blocking out Glimmer and Bow who had turned to say something to her that she didn’t want to hear. All the other princesses had headed back to their realms and Adora simply wanted to be alone to think. There had been precious little time for that since the night before. She clicked the lock on her door, seeing the blue shimmer move around the edge of the room and let her shoulders slump, finally letting down her guard.

Knowing that Glimmer couldn’t just spark into the room had been something that she had come to appreciate more and more ever the passing of years. In the beginning it had been reassuring to know that Glimmer would just suddenly pop into the room. The Horde orphan had hated being alone, never having slept by herself. Bow and Glimmer had been a constant presence that kept her from thinking too much about what she had lost by leaving her squad. As the years had passed though, Glimmer and Bow had taken to locking their own bedroom door, meaning that Adora could not burst in and ruin the moment. This change had not gone both ways,  
unfortunately.

Glimmer had continued to pop in on a whim. As time passed this began to feel less comforting and more intrusive. They weren’t teens anymore and yet Glimmer would still expect her to drop everything and listen to her rant about her parents stifling her, or how the rebuilding work wasn’t going as planned. 

Things had to come to a head eventually, and come to a head they had in the most embarrassing way that Adora could imagine. She had been pinning one of the palace guards to the wall, the other woman’s naked legs wrapped around her hips as her own pants pooled around her knees and her shirt hung open. She was thrusting into her with three fingers as she sucked on the older woman’s neck and revelled in her breathy grunts when the too familiar sound of tinkling bells caught the periphery of her mind. It wasn’t enough to make her lose her rhythm as she toyed with the nipple in her other hand and pushed her willing victim more firmly into the wall.

“Adora you…” The loud voice that filled the room stopped everything.

Three things happened in rapid succession. Glimmer screamed in horror, Adora lurched backwards and the brunette who had been wedged between her body and the wall hit the floor with her ass, hard. The woman on the floor was crimson with embarrassment, curling up to try to shield her nudity from the princess. Gathering her wits, Adora had stood in front of her most recent paramour and demanded that the dumb struck Glimmer leave. Eventually, the pink haired woman had got her wits together enough to disappear from the room in a cacophony of sparkles and Adora was able to turn to the woman on the floor who had moved rapidly from shame to anger.

Adora reached down a hand to her, letting go of her shirt which fell open and exposed her breasts again. The hand was slapped away harshly as the other woman scrambled to her feet with a glower on her face. Adora watched her stomp around the room, pulling her clothes on until she was standing beside the door. Her brown eyes fixed on Adora, judgment oozing from them.

“All you princesses really need to grow up!” She threw the door open and began to storm out, “don’t call me again and when you see me in the corridors, don’t talk to me!”

The words were harsher than she expected, punctuated with the loud slamming of the door making her wince. The shame that the other woman must have felt, naked and exposed on the floor as her boss just burst in had obviously shaken her. Adora would give her a few days and then try to talk with her. The last thing she wanted was another ‘talk’ from Juliet about her philandering with the security team. Once had been bad enough.

Adora had straightened her own clothes and gone in search of the mortified Glimmer. It had been easy to find her, she always ran back to her own room. Adora made a point of knocking loudly on her door and a muffled ‘come in’ met her ears.

Glimmer was perched on the edge of her bed, no longer suspended from the ceiling now that she shared it with Bow as a concession to him. As Adora walked in, she didn’t look up at once, head held in her hands and shoulders quacking a little.

“See how easy that is?” Adora began, referring to asking permission to enter. At the words, Glimmer’s shoulder’s began to shake more, Adora becoming concerning and sitting beside her friend, putting an arm around her in comfort. “Hey, it’s nothing we can’t sort out.”

Glimmer’s face came up and with a start Adora realised that she hadn’t been crying, but stifling laughter. “You should have seen your faces!” 

Something snapped in Adora’s as she saw the mirth in Glimmer. Adora had been embarrassed, her date mortified and Glimmer just thought it all a grand joke. As they had grown older, Adora had noticed Glimmer become increasingly self absorbed, focused on the importance of her own missions and desires. Usually those moments didn’t last long, and the blond was able to push them aside, remembering how much the pink princess had done for her. But today, Adora was enraged in a way she seldom was.

“What is wrong with you?” She was on her feet now and looming over her friend.

“What? I’m sorry I interrupted. Honestly. I never needed to see…that!” Her glib words and dismissive gesture further enraged Adora.

“How would you feel if I just burst in on you and Bow?” 

“Adora, why are you so mad? I said I’m sorry. I just forgot to knock. It’s happened a million times.” Glimmer rose to approach her and Adora reared back.

“She told me not to talk to her anymore.”

“She’ll get over it. Give it a week and she’ll be back in your room.” A smirk was playing around her lips as she spoke, making it clear what she really thought about Adora’s promiscuity.

Adora had stormed out of the room, knowing that if she stayed they would end up fighting and nothing would be resolved. Glimmer was more stubborn than anyone she had ever met. Well, almost anyone. 

That had led her to seek out Castaspella, thankfully in Brightmoon on one of her bi-monthly visits. The eccentric sorceress was more of a fixture in the castle than when Adora had arrived. She came to spend time with her big brother and had struck up a relationship with Juliet that both women seemed to think was a secret.

Adora had managed not to reveal too much when asking Casta if she could put some sort of magic filter on her room to keep Glimmer from getting in on a whim. The older woman had cupped her cheek in an unexpectedly maternal gesture and told her it was about time. They had both returned to her room and it had been a shockingly easy process to cast a spell on the room that would activate to lock the entire room when she locked the door with a shimmer of blue. 

Adora threw her bag onto the bed and flopped back beside it. That had all happened a few years ago, Glimmer had been huffy about it at first but seemed to get over it quickly. Now, Adora’s room was reserved only for her and those people that she invited in. Though she hadn’t invited anyone in for a while.

Taking a few deep breaths, she filled her lungs with the sweet smelling air that wafted in thrust the open balcony doors. The scent was made up of tree sap and flowers and just a hint of magic that was constantly suspended in the air. She couldn’t help but compare it to the crisp, almost synthetic smelling air of Oasis as she let her eyes roam the ceiling with it’s ornate light fixture. Everything just felt like too much. She pulled herself up into a sitting position, slowly, as though she was as old as time itself, then back to her feet.

Wandering listlessly to her desk, she ran her hand over the various souvenirs and moments that sat there. She pick them up one by one and ran her hands over each one. From above her desk the smiling faces of her friends looked over her work. She placed a small glass unicorn back in its place on her desk as she reached out and touched an image of a very young Best Friend Squad, faces smooshed together and mugging gleefully for a camera that she was pretty sure Sea Hawk had been holding. 

She pulled it down, releasing the pin holding it here with a pop as it few out of the cork board to land somewhere out of sight. She stared at the girl in the middle. That younger her who had seen a world of possibilities in front of her as long as she had her friends by her side. She reached up and touched the hair poof that she still sported, just one more reminder that the girl in the picture hadn’t become who she had hoped to be.

Catra’s face swam in front of her eyes for a moment. Not the one that she had just met, but the skinny, sharp jawed girl who she had run simulations with and climbed to the highest, most dangerous spot in a dangerous place just to feel free. That image was replaced by the bigger, more intimidating version of that girl. All grown up with her harshly cool hair, filled out frame and thoughtfully deep eyes. For a moment, the two images of the other woman sat in her head, side-by-side, until with a grunt of frustration she realised she had screwed the photo up in her hand, leaving a crease down her own face.

Usually returning to Brightmoon was a relief.

Something had to change. 

__________________

“…if the ship that they discovered had the technology to build that city, that quickly, and keep it hidden, who’s to say what else they are hiding?” Glimmer folded her arms over her chest as she stood in the war room looking over at her parents where they sat side-by-side.

Angella’s face was contemplative, eyes sharp as she considered her next words carefully. Glimmer was always a simmering powder keg when they were in this room, as though the place itself made her so tense that she could barely contain herself. Her mother had more than twenty-five years of experience in dealing with her hair trigger child, so knew to consider her words carefully. Micah, at her side, was staring at his only child incredulously. Her words held a little more venom than he was comfortable with and he wondered, not for the first time, how much he had truly missed trapped on Beast Island. 

“Was there anything concrete that you could point to as suspicious?” Angella measured her words, the last thing she wanted after seven years of peace was to be the one to start another war.

“Did you not hear when I said that Catra is there, with all of the Horde, and that they have a giant spaceship?” Glimmer's hands were one the edge of the table now as she leaned forward and glowered, voice rising in pitch but not volume.

“Yes, Glimmer, I understand that. What you must understand, is that the Alliance cannot be the aggressor here.” The key was not to escalate; with her daughter, or a potential enemy.

Glimmer threw her hands up in frustration and flopped into her chair, almost balling herself up in her defensiveness. “You’re always so keen to ‘not be seen as the aggressor’! It’s why we were losing the war! If we took the offensive for a change we could stop what is coming before it even started.”

Angella stood now, her massive hight making Glimmer sink further into her chair. Micah looked up at his wife and then back to his daughter. He had not said a word. A big part of him thought that it was still not his place to intervene here, he had lost that right when he went against the Queen’s orders and got himself banished to a death island. Sometimes it was hard though, as he moved his gaze between the two women that he loved dearly. 

“We will not start a war, Glimmer. Bring me some proof of an impending threat. Show me these weapons, bring me a battle plan written by Catra. Something. Your groundless accusations are just that.” She walked to her daughter and rested her hand on her shoulder, causing her to uncoil just a little and look up. “We need proof for action.” It wasn’t a complete denial and seemed to appease the younger woman somewhat.

“If you need proof I’ll get it for you. They never showed us that ship. I just know they have weapons powerful enough to destroy us all. They brought water and farming to the centre of the desert, if they can do that they can do anything.” Her voice was more measured now as she seemed to be considering her options. “They want to work with Perfuma and Mermista. They can get on their good side and then collect evidence for us.”

“I’m not sure that Perfuma will be comfortable with acting as your spy, darling.” Angella had moved back to her own chair, sitting and taking Micah’s hand where it rested on the table.

“I’m sure I can get Mermista and Perfuma to see things my way.” Already her mind was processing how to get Perfuma to be her unwitting spy. “I need to meet with them both before they head home, in that case. Preparation is important.” 

Glimmer rose without waiting for permission from her mother, blinking out of the room in a shower of sparkles, clearly intending to ambush her friends before they left. Angella sighed. She wished that Glimmer had been able to move on from the war as easily as the rest of her friends had. Finding this kingdom in the desert was the last thing that her daughter needed.

“Are you alright, my love?” The low burr of Micah’s voice, still something that she couldn’t quite believe she got to hear, came softly from her side.

“I wish they hadn’t found this city.” Angella’s sounded tired to his ears as she tapped at the document in front of them.

Micah stood and pulled his much taller wife to her feet, drawing her into an embrace. She melted into him, and he gave her his strength to keep her grounded as he always had. He may be king, but she was the powerhouse of the two of them. He was happy to stay in her orbit and lend her his strength when she needed it. He hadn’t always been as happy to do so, wanting to prove himself worthy of this immortal goddess who had the choice of anyone she wanted and picked him. That had led to disaster and losing his child’ s whole childhood, leaving Angella to fight a war that had clearly taken more of a toll on her than the younger people around her had seen.

“I know, my love. But perhaps this will be the catharsis we all need. I know you’ve all been waiting, wondering when the Horde would resurface. At least now you know. I hope that Glimmer is wrong, and that they are not a threat, but at least it isn’t waiting over our heads anymore.” He looked up into her lovely face and smiled. Angella smiled tiredly and leant down to kiss him, enjoying the tickle of his beard as she pulled away.

“You’re right. It is a relief to know where they are. Why did Catra have to be there though?” Glimmer had never been able to get over her ire at the Force Captain who had led the assault on Brightmoon.

Angella wasn’t certain why her daughter held such loathing of the cat woman. It was something she had not been able to get over. It was puzzling, given that although the other young woman was the one who had kidnapped Glimmer and Bow, delivering them into the Horde’s clutches, it had been Shadow Weaver who had tortured her daughter. She may have forgiven the other woman, allowing her to live in house arrest in the castle to be able to keep watch on her, but she had not forgotten. Glimmer though, seemed to have unequivocally forgiven what the old sorceress had done to her and focused all her frustration on the soldier. 

Now here was Catra, back again, and with her presence assuring that Glimmer would see nothing but danger lurking in the shadows of this place. Angella couldn’t lie, she too harboured suspicions about the hidden kingdom that they had found purely by chance. It was hard not to. The place was made up of all their old enemies. She would like to know what more that buried ship had to offer.

She would have to debrief with both Adora and Bow to get a full picture of events, she was certain that Glimmer had held back some information, she always did. Her daughter loved to keep control. 

The bigger question that lingered in her mind as Micah led her out of the room and out for a stroll in the gardens, was what had become of Hordak? 

__________________

Looking down at her sleeping husband, Glimmer admired his well sculpted torso. The sheet had ridden down to his hips as they slept and he was now splayed out, one arm flung over his head, resting on then pillow while the other rested on his abdomen. The moon shone brightly through their balcony window, almost making his skin shimmer as hers did in the light. A big part of Glimmer wanted to reach out and run her hand over his skin, spread her fingers above his heart and feel it beat at her pam in that reassuringly solid way that was so quintessentially Bow. Her anchor for as long as she could remember. 

She moved quietly, not to touch her husband, but to ease her way off of the mattress. She picked up the robe that she had cast aside close to the mattress, slipped her feet into slippers, using her magic to vanish from her room and reappear in the empty corridor outside. She pulled on the robe, cinching it at her waist before starting to walk a familiar path along dimly lit corridors. The further she went, the darker the corridors became, shadows flickering on the walls, seeming to guide her path to her clandestine destination. She was long past being afraid of the shadow minions that crawled along the baseboards.

Nobody saw the princess, just as she had planned. This was the time of night where guards were changing and she was well used to making short work of the brief journey. Reaching the door, she inserted the key that she kept in her robe and let herself in, quickly closing and locking it behind her. The room she had entered was only lit by the moon, yet still bright enough to make out the woman in red sat on the chais lounge pouring two steaming cups of tea.

Not waiting to be invited, Glimmer moved forward, leaning close to press a kiss to the seated woman’s cheek and receiving a smile in acknowledgement as she moved to sit opposite and accept a cup and saucer. They sipped their tea quietly for a moment before the older woman placed her cup back onto the small table that sat between them, folded her hands in her lap, and fixed the princess with a fondly appraising look.

“Welcome back Glimmer, I have missed you this last week.” Shadow Weaver’s voice was soft, gentler than it had ever been with anyone other than Adora. Without the mask covering her face her voice was less hollow and held a warmth that Glimmer had drawn comfort in over the years, especially when her parents would not listen to her.

“Me too. Your advice was welcome though. Sometimes the others just can’t see clearly past all their emotions.” Once upon a time, that would have been true of her too, but over the years she had learnt a thing or two from her secret mentor and how to look beyond sentimentality was one of those things.

“You know that you always have a sounding board in me, Princess.” Another smile settled on her face, pulling at the thick bands of scarring that covered the left side of her face. Dark eyes twinkled and Glimmer felt the same pride that she always did when Shadow Weaver showed her what lay beneath the mask. It was something she knew that she had never trusted Adora with.

Glimmer never spoke about her relationship with the former Horde commander. The others in the palace knew that she would visit in the day from time-to-time, that was seen as acceptable by all concerned. Her father was less than pleased that she had any kind of relationship with his childhood mentor, but Angella had seen no danger in it, Shadow Weaver being largely powerless now and the Horde threat eliminated. Glimmer doubted she would have been so magnanimous were she to know about their almost nightly tête-à-têtes.

Shadow Weaver was a sounding board for the princess, for years she had gone to her for help and advice that she did not want to speak to the king and queen about. All too often Angella still saw her as a child, second guessing her choices or talking her into plans that were not her own when she sought advice. She had realised quickly, that the best way to make any progress with anything, like reconstructing the Fright Zone, was to go to them with a definitive idea and plan and leave no room for questions of doubt. That was where Shadow Weaver came in, she was Glimmer’s personal advisor, albeit a secret one.

Shadow Weaver had also been invaluable in helping her build her sorcery skills. Castaspella and Micah were good teachers and she had learned much from both of them but Shadow Weaver simply knew more. Her knowledge of the craft was encyclopaedic and she had shown Glimmer how to harness both the light and dark spells. She had not yet had cause to unleash them, but were they ever to be under threat again, Glimmer would be as formidable as She-ra had ever been.

“So tell me about this Oasis.” Shadow Weaver’s dark eyes were trained on the younger woman as Glimmer took another sip of her herbal tea, a special blend made by the witch. Even in the moonlight she saw a red glow briefly shine in pink eyes, Glimmer blinked and it was gone. “Did you find the mongrel there?”

“We were right, Catra is there and so are lots more things like her. She even used a baby one to try to emotionally manipulate us. Can you believe it?” Of course she could, she well remembered the brat being brought to her. A rare error in judgement that had cost her dearly in the long run. She still rued not having the scolders simply euthanise all of the young as they had the adult beasts. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. 

Glimmer began to spell out everything that they had learned. Shadow Weaver watched her speak, nodding along and giving her all the attention that she was so desperate for. Glimmer was everything she had hoped that Adora would be for her. Without the pesky martyrdom that plagued the blond girl. Of course, if she could get Adora back under her thumb along the way, then all the better.

___________________

In the days after they had returned from Oasis, after fond farewells to her friends who she had resolved to make more of an effort to visit and keep up with, Queen Angella and King Micah had pulled her aside. Rather than heading to the war room, they had taken her to their private parlour where cakes and fruit juice had been laid out. 

Adora had never felt completely comfortable with Queen Angella, it was nothing that the woman did, its was more to do with Adora and her ongoing issues with powerful older women. Being raised by Shadow Weaver as her favourite had come with a lot of psychological damage. When Adora had first come to Brightmoon as a teen she had feared disappointing the austere, aloof woman. She had never felt good enough as herself, firmly believing for years that all Angella valued was her She-ra persona. She had tried so hard over the years to impress the woman, often ending in her own embarrassment and a mortifying sweet intervention.

The other princesses had set up a meeting that she thought was about more demolition at the Fright Zone. It had been some years after she joined the rebellion and after the fizzling end of the war. Adora had walked into the garden (she had thought it was a strange place for a strategy session but assumed Perfuma had needed to be near the trees or something) to find them all seated on garden chairs in a semi-circle with Angella at the centre. Adora had instantly tensed and stumbled on her own feet, falling in a heap at the angelic woman’s feet. She had looked up, blushing furiously only to see Angella looking down at her with nothing but naked affection.

The group had each taken a turn, speaking about how much they loved her and valued what Adora did for them as a friend. There had been no talk of She-ra that day. They had all noticed that she had been working hard to rebuild war damage at the expense of herself, and it had been heartwarming to realise that they cared enough to do this. After the princesses, Bow and even Sea Hawk (through a shanty about her, obviously) had showered her with love that had made her squirm under that spotlight, but built a warmth in her chest, they had all left, some leaving a kiss on her cheek as they walked passed. Frosta had punched her in the shoulder roughly and laughed at her startled face. 

That had left her alone with the Queen. She had still felt tongue tied and started to lower her eyes. Log fingers had cupped her jaw and raised her face. A part of her had tensed, the gesture too much like how Shadow Weaver would show her affection only to remind her how conditional It truly was. Angella must have felt it, and moved her hand away to hold the top of her arm and rub reassuringly.

“Adora, I need you to know that you never have to try to impress. You are one of the most impressive young women I have ever known. You have overcome so much since you came here to be with us. Never think that I only value you for what you can do for Brightmoon. I value you because you are precious to me. I’m sad that I haven’t shown you that enough for you to trust in it.” Adora had felt tears start to track down her face at those words and Angella had brushed them away. “I love you Adora, you are a part of my family. If you never did anything except ride horses and eat cake for the rest of your life, it would be enough because you are enough.”

They had not embraced, Adora had felt too overwhelmed, but from there things had been easier between them. Adora believed that Angella’s words had been sincere, and she felt much happier with her now, but whenever they met formally even in a setting like the parlour, she still found herself reverting to the girl who had arrived with nothing but a red jacket and a magic sword.

Adora was still processing her own feelings about Oasis when the King and Queen had asked her for her thoughts on the place. They often consulted her about things, wanting a separate option from Glimmers. Her upbringing meaning that she could bring some different, more strategic perspectives to things that the other princesses lacked. She was also just more hardened than they were. It was sometimes hard to see, her affable personality shielding it and making her seem much more like her peers, but the monarchs saw it and appreciated her ability to detach herself from a situation and look at it somewhat dispassionately.

That had not been the case that day though. Far from dispassionate, Oasis had started her on a tailspin that’s he was yet to be able to pull herself out of. When they had asked her to debrief them on what she had learned, she had shared as much. She found that they both appreciated her being more bluntly honest. She was still able to give them the facts that they desired though.

“Though we were not given access to this downed spacecraft, their council member did give us enough detail and documentation to verify its existence. There was come indication that if a treaty were to be signed in the future then we may be granted limited access.” That had surprised her on the last morning when a courier had brought some plans, images and schematics, clearly intended to entice them to think about forming an alliance rather than a rivalry.

“Oh, Glimmer must have forgotten to pass that on to us. I shall have to remind her.” Adora noticed that the queen’s eyes looked troubled. “Did you get any indication that they were an imminent threat?”

“Honestly, I think that they were more afraid of our intent. I saw no indication of weaponry, beyond what the border patrol had. From what I saw of the city it was built around the rehabilitation of the people and those we encountered were just concerned with living their lives and improving their lot.” That was the truth as far as she had seen it.

“And this alleged ship they discovered. What do you believe their reasons for not taking you to see it?” It was Micah who spoke up this time. His attitude to the Horde was interesting. He had fought them and lost, suffering consequences that were hard to imagine, yet when he had retried he had accepted that they had given up and left easier than any of them. Maybe he had realised the futility of fighting a war perpetually in stalemate.

“As soon as were told about the ship being full of bodies I knew they would not take us. It sounds more like the place is a graveyard.” She shivered as she imagined the sight of thousands of mummified corpses.

“One last question and we’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing. You know Catra better than any of us. Glimmer thinks that she is secretly the leader of this place and just building an army. What’s your take?” Angella looked at her earnestly.

“I may have grown up with Catra, but the woman I met there wasn’t the girl I grew up with or the woman I spent two years fighting. She seems to have changed a lot. All I witnessed was a woman doing her job and looking after her child. I saw no evidence of them plotting for war.”

“What child? Glimmer mentioned them using a child to illicit sympathy when they told you about the magical orphans.” Micah’s voice was soft as he mentioned the orphans.

“I spent some time in one of the orphanages. The child from the meeting was there but not one of the orphans. It turned out that Catra has a daughter. I can’t see her doing anything to put a child in danger. We had to much of that ourselves.” Talking about Catra and her child made Adora feel sad, which must have been reflected in her eyes.

“Thank you Adora, we just wanted a full picture, you understand.” Adora had left that meeting more galvanised than ever to move on. 

Moving on became something of an obsession for Adora over the month since returning from Oasis. It had started with small things. She had gone to the palace tailor and tasked him with creating her a new wardrobe, without the colours red or beige in them. Needless to say the wiry man had been taken aback. For years he had been trying to persuade the woman to change up her style, even a little, tired of making her the same red jacket and pants. He had managed to sneak in small alterations over time; getting rid of the ridiculous shoulders, streamlining the collar and getting some variety into her simple white shirts. This instruction? This was unprecedented!

Adora had spent hours with the tailor in nothing but her underwear, being measured from every angle. She had dressed and they had discussed ideas over tea and cookies. Yes to pants, and shirts, maybe to a dress or two, a hard no to skirts. She liked several of the colours that he showed her on swatches and had left feeling like she had made a first step in real, positive forward momentum.

After her trip to the tailor, feeling invigorated she had taken herself to the barber. She hadn’t had a clue what she wanted, just that she wanted to shed another thing that was stopping her from growing. She had worn her hair the same way all her life. A ponytail, pulled tightly to the back of her head, that had been joined by the iconic pouffe at the front that had come after a rather disastrous attempt at letting Catra cut her hair when they were nine. She had like how it looked and kept it ever since no matter how silly her best friend had told her it looked, or how much the princesses had teased her. Now, it felt like changing it would be like shedding her skin.

Sitting in the chair, looking at herself in the mirror, she jumped a little when the woman behind her let down her ponytail and the hair cascaded around her face. Her eyes looked bluer somehow. She brought her hand up and touched her hair, winding a lock around her finder. Distantly she heard the barber ask what she wanted. She could hardly tell her that she just wanted to change, could she.

“Cut it short.” The words blurted out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“How short?” Other hands were in her hair now, sifting through and examining the length. She could see the hair in the mirror falling from those hands and looking like golden wings.

“Short enough that it won’t fall into my face when I work, I guess. Other than that I don’t really know.” Did she sound childish, sitting there like that?

“Well, that’s a start. I won’t go mad, you tell me when you like the look of it in the mirror and I will stop and style it.” That made her relax her shoulders and nod with a smile.

As the hair rained down onto the floor, Adora felt lighter somehow. Maybe it was just not having the weight of the hair, or maybe it was more symbolic than that? Whatever it was, with every swish of the scissors through the golden strands Adora felt more and more relaxed.

After thirty minutes and much back and forth, Adora found herself sitting there with hair that barely brushed her collar. It was short at the nape of her neck and messily long on top, flopping onto her forehead but not into her eyes. Around her ears the hair curled and tickled a little but she had to admit that she looked all at once older, but more carefree. It softened her face and her blue eyes shone. It highlighted her jawline and made her feel just as confident as pulling the hair back and cinching it up always had.

“Do you like it?” The barber stood behind her, expectantly.

“I love it. Thank you so much.” Adora spun in her seat to give the woman a smile.

“You’ll need to come back every few months just to keep it looking like that, it’ll need more attention than your old style,” Adora laughed at the warning. That didn’t sound so bad. She said as much and the two women left each other with agreement that Adora would return.

Sporting new clothes and a new haircut, Adora started to feel like she was making positive changes. Granted they were superficial ones, but it was more forward momentum than she had made in a decade. All her old fears about change had melted away. Now it was time to think about what bigger changes she could make. That was what led her to the coffee in the middle of Brightmoon, outside of the castle, where she waited, absently tapping her fingers on the wooden table top as she waited for company.

Taking a sip of her tea, she almost choked when a hand settled on her shoulder. Managing not to take a defence posture, she swallowed and gave the new arrival a smile. General Juliet was one of a very small group of people who had the skill to take her off guard. Even Glimmer’s magic made enough of a disturbance for her to be able to spot her presence…well most of the time. 

“Thank you for agreeing to come, Juliet.” Adora seldom addressed her without her title, if the general wasn’t curious already, she was now. 

The dark haired woman had noticed the change in the younger woman. It was hard to miss. The closely cropped hair that was playfully tousled, the more casual clothes in a range of colours that flattered her frame and made her look more at ease and less like a girl who had just run away from a military dictatorship. It had all happened quickly, but Juliet though that it was about time.

“I was curious. You’ve never sought me out before. Truthfully, other than the war, I think you and I have only spoken privately regarding your use of my security team as a dating pool.” She quirked an eyebrow and shot the other woman a smirk to show that she was teasing.

“Not some of my finest moments.” Adora was proud of herself when she managed not to blush at the joke.

“So what can I help you with Adora?” Juliet gestured to a nearby waitress who scurried off to get her order. It looked like she was a regular here.

“I have decided that I need something to do, a job. I can’t keep on waiting for the other shoe to drop. Most of the major reconstruction had ended, there are no more enemies left for me to fight and I can’t bare sitting around. I know Glimmer wants more help with the village but I was wondering if you had anything?” Adora took a drink as she waited.

Though Juliet was based in the palace, her formal role was general of all of the Brightmoon troops. She looked at her companion, saying a distracted ‘thanks’ to the waiter who placed her drink down. Even though they may not be at war, the price of peace was eternal vigilance.

“I think I have a few things for you, especially with this Oasis situation. Your prior military training would make you idea for liaising with them, if things get that far. For now, I have some roles I think you would be perfect for. Several of my command team want to retire, so give me a few months and you’ll have a role. I’ll send you some documents and you can see if any of it suits.” Adora smiled brightly, that had been easier than she had imagined. 

She wondered why she had waited so long.

___________________

Standing in front of the shield, waiting for it to part and let her in, Perfuma felt a thrill of excitement run down her spine. It had been three weeks since they had found Oasis and already she was returning to work with the farmers on how to cultivate more crops. It was humbling to be invited back and to be told that they trusted her to use her magic with discretion. She had not come alone, bringing several of the best horticulturalists from Plumeria with her as well as wagons full of seeds and seedlings pulled by horses. All together there were ten people in the plumeria party and each was almost as excited as their leader.

Almost.

Perfuma was excited to help, of course, but she was just as excited at the thought of seeing Scorpia again. Though they had only spent a little time together, Perfuma could admit that she was smitten with the scorpioni woman. They had kept in contact through the tracker pads, speaking almost daily since she returned to Plumeria. It had been a shock when the device had chirruped one night as she prepared for bed. She had picked it up, assuming she would see Bow on the screen only to feel her face light up when the white haired woman appeared.

Scorpia had been almost giddy that she had answered, then quickly chagrinned that she had had disturbed her. Before Perfuma had managed to breath her name, the rambling woman had been about to end the call, apologising all the while. Perfuma had managed to stop her with a reassurance that she was just as pleased to see her. It had started a nightly routine. Perfuma would perform her duties as princess and before bed she and Scorpia would talk about their days.

Perfuma had never found anyone she could talk to as easily as Scorpia. Perfuma was naturally a listener, taking on other people problems and helping to relieve their burden but she knew that often the other princesses didn’t understand her. The Plumerians around her understood more about her, but she was separated from them by the weight of her responsibilities. In Scorpia she had found a kindred spirit. Sometimes, after they spoke, Perfuma would find herself dreaming about a version of their lives where Scorpia had been raised as the princess she had been born to be and that the two of them had met at a ball.

It was a dream that she had often over the weeks and now, with the shield shimmering in front of her and the sound of excited voices behind, she felt her heart flutter. The shield dropped in a large archway, revealing a team of men and women who surveyed them before waving them through. Perfuma tried not to frown when she realised that none of them were Scorpia. Telling her people to go ahead and follow the road, she was just about to climb onto the back of a wagon when she heard heavy footfalls of someone running towards them.

She climbed down in time to see Scorpia come to a stop just feet away. Sending her people on, while Scorpia dismissed the guards now that the shield was back up, they just stood and looked at each other across the space. Perfuma noticed a pretty pink blush creeping up Scorpia neck as she fidgeted with her claws, screwing the tips of them together. Perfuma moved forward, reaching out her hand to rest it onto one of the large pincers, feeling the cool, smooth surface under her skin. Scorpia froze, eyes wide as she examined the fragile hand starkly pale against her red shell. 

Perfuma felt soft, looking at this giant woman who was so very gentle. How the Horde could have taken someone so sweet and try to make them into a weapon was just one more thing for her to hate them fore and be thankful that they were gone. Though they had only seen each other though a screen for the last three weeks they had talked about everything. She had never felt closer to anyone. Never felt more attracted to anyone. 

She reached out her other hand and cupped Scorpia’s cheek, bringing those coal dark eyes up to meet hers. Scorpia blushed even harder, trying to lower her eyes again in embarrassment. Perfuma couldn’t have that. She moved closer still, Scorpia’s claws and her hand now trapped between their bodies. Scorpia may be a physical imposing woman, but Perfuma was just as tall, her willowy frame bowing forward to connect her lips with the startled ones in front of her. It was a soft kiss, little more than a press of lips, but she was sure that she was blushing now too. She pulled away a little.

“Was that ok? I should have asked first I’m…” Before she could say more Scorpia was initiating another kiss, deeper this time but still close lipped. She drew her claws from between then and drew Perfuma closer with as much care as she would hand glass. It was perfect.

Scorpia reluctantly pulled away, extending an elbow for Perfuma to take. The blond eschewed the elbow and took her claw carefully in her hand. Scorpia looked at once worried but very much warmed by the action.

They made their way back to Capital in Scorpia’s transporter. It wasn’t a long journey, but it gave them time to talk and laugh together like a pair of school girls. By the time they had drawn level with the Plumarian delegation, the centre of the city was towering overhead. Perfuma’s eyes were on the woman beside her though, watching a host of expressions pass over her face as she clearly fought with something on her mind, eyes fixed on the path ahead.

“Scorpia, everything ok in there?” Perfuma stroked a finger along the white hair at her temple, careful not to distract her.

“Oh, yeah, everything is fine. Yep, nothing going on up there.” She stopped for a moment and Perfuma watched her brow furrow. “I mean, something is going on up there, obviously, I have thoughts. Lots of thoughts.” She was rambling endearingly, Perfuma decided to save her from it.

“Are any of those thoughts about me?”

“Lots of them!” Scorpia smiled hugely, not embarrassed to say that. Perfuma laughed. It seemed to give Scorpia a shot of courage. “I was wondering, well it’s just an idea, but whether you would like to stay at the orphanage with me?” She looked over and saw the other woman eyes widen and rushed on, “You don’t have to. There are rooms at the hotel for everyone. You probably want to stay with your team, you’re in charge after all. It was a silly thing to ask. Forget I asked it. No questions here.” She was steering the vehicle to a stop, they had slightly over taken the Plumerians, and Scorpia jumped out before Perfuma could say anything in response, to flag down the wagons as they too would be took cumbersome to navigate the narrow streets of the city.

Perfuma got out and directed her people to get their personal items from the wagon and that they would be safe left where they were. In the hum of activity she went back to Scorpia who was waiting to lead them all to the hotel, Perfuma had already pulled her large bag from a wagon and held it with both hands.

“Scorpia, I would love to come and stay with you at the orphanage. I think it sounds lovely. My people are capable of looking after their personal time. So, if the offer is still open, the answer is yes.” She gave Scorpia her most sincere smile, receiving a bashful one in return, accompanied by a nod and her bag being taken from her with ease as Scorpia slung it over her shoulder as though it weighed nothing. Perfuma’s heart may have fluttered at that, but she was almost certain that she did not swoon. No matter what any observers may have said. 

The gaggle of Plumerians had been awed by the place as they approached it, seeing the lush grass that led up to the city, all too happy not to crush it with their wagons. Once inside the city their eyes had bugged at the sight of the pristine structures so alien from their own organic home. Scorpia took them to the hotel and they were given their rooms. Perfuma gathered them all together for a pep talk about respecting the rules of the city and the amenities of the hotel. There work would start tomorrow, so she told them to have a great time in the city. Each of them was provided with one of the small handheld tablets that Scorpia carried with a map and a quick link to their princess. 

Explaining that she was going to stay at the orphanage, she left with Scorpia to a chorus of happy goodbyes. She was almost certain that her people would stay out of trouble. They would undoubtedly find Bazaar and, hopefully, charm the locals. She seemed to have charmed one already. 

The walk to Scorpia’s home seemed to take an instant, both women just caught up in connecting with each other. Any worry either had harboured that their easy rapport over coms would not be replicated in reality had been dashed almost instantly. If anything, the pull to each other was stronger than ever before. Scorpia guided her into the orphanage, once again deserted with the children still in school, and up to her room.

Scorpia’s room was big enough to accommodate a double bed, a desk and a wardrobe. Everything was simple and functional, much like the hotel had been. In fact the room reminded Perfuma very much of the space where she had spent her last stay. A few framed pictures adorned the desk, a tattered soft toy placed between them. Scorpia gently placed the bag on the bed before walking over and opening a door to reveal a small bathroom with a shower. 

“So, ah, this is me.” Scorpia stood beside that open doorway, claws outstretched, looking a little lost.

Perfuma walked to her and slotted herself into the other woman’s personal space, wrapping her own arms around her neck, weaving her long fingers into white hair, she felt Scorpia bring her arms down to circle her waist. Smiling dopily, they leaned their foreheads together and sank into each others touch. It was safe to say both were very much smitten.

Before they could kiss again, the main door of the room was flung open with a bang and a screaming ball of fur rushed in. Perfuma jumped, ready to tackle an intruder, but Scorpia squeezed her waist reassuringly, laughing at what Perfuma now realised was a completely naked kitten.

“Scorpia! Save Yar-Yar!” The giggling child threw herself onto the bed and curled up in a tiny ball behind Perfuma’s bag going eerily silent and still.

Before Perfuma could say anything, a soaking wet Catra stomped into the room, leaving wet footprints on the smooth floor. Her tail was limp and her ears were flattened against her head. Her shirt and pants were moulded to her skin by the weight of the water. She walked into the room without knocking or looking at Scorpia and her guest, making a beeline straight to the bed where the kitten was hiding. 

“Yarsha, please get off of Scorpia’s bed.” Her voice was calm, if anything it was too calm. She waited, careful not to stand on the rug or touch the bed with her saturated form. Perfuma was surprised that Catra had been able to hear the child who had seemed so silent to her human ears. She was also shocked by Catra’s composure even though she was obviously annoyed.

“No!” 

“Yarsha, you are naked and you smell. Please get off of Scorpia’s clean bed.” Catra’s tried to appeal to the kitten. The child sat up, looked at her care giver, and promptly shook her head.

“No!”

“Please, Yarsha. Ra is getting cold, and you do smell my little fuzzy-butt. I know you love the bath. We can play with your ducky family.” That seemed to get the child’s attention and she started to edge towards the bigger cat.

“You do ducky voices.” It seemed that Perfuma was witnessing one hell of a negotiation, she had turned in the circle of Scorpia’s arms to face the bed and could feel the big scorpion shaking with mirth, her face pressed to Perfuma’s neck to hide any sound she couldn’t keep in. The princess wondered how often this scene had played out before.

“Yes, I’ll do ducky voices. Come on.” She held out her arms, expecting the little one to jump into them. Instead, Yarsha stayed just out of reach. “Come on.”

“No! You do ducky voices now.” Her little face was scrunched into a pout so adorable that Perfuma couldn’t hold in the ‘aww’ and got thrown matching dirty looks from both cats.

“Yarsha!”

“NO! Ducky!” Catra sighed. Resigned… 

___________________

“And then…

AND THEN…” Perfuma was giggling just thinking about it.

“Catra started to quack like a duck! It was honestly amazing, and she made the duck sound like it was talking. Yarsha jumped off the bed straight away and from what I could tell the next day, bath time was a great success.” Perfuma had come to tell Brightmoon about her first foray to work with Oasis. The other Alliance members had come together for the meeting, planning for the worst but hoping for the best. The formal report had detailed the agricultural work and how welcome her people had been. The best seemed to be all she had to share 

The informal report began with her relaying the bath time incident, which got giggles from most of the people gathered around the table. Obviously she censored what she told them about her relationship with Scorpia, not out of shame but out of covetousness. That was for her. She shared more about her time spent with the former Horde Second in Command, out in the farm area and with the children. It painted a positive picture. 

“That all sounds very sweet. A great act. Let’s see how long she can keep it up after repeated visits.” Glimmer was becoming exhausting, Perfuma thought. Her aura was just dark all the time lately. 

“Did you ask to see the Halfmoon?” Angella took up from her daughter, keen not to derail the meeting into another diatribe about Catra. 

“I did enquire and was told that it was not a place for outsiders. I asked the full council. There was a suggestion that in time it could be a possibility but it was a matter of trust.” It hadn’t been quite that diplomatic but Perfuma didn’t think they needed to hear that.

The meeting broke up soon after that, everybody heading home. Kingdoms didn’t run themselves. Adora declined lunch with the royal family and headed back to her room alone. 

Back in her room, Adora threw herself into her chair at her desk. Why did hearing good things about Oasis make her feel like this? Was she still as angry as Glimmer? Was that what this was? With a noise that was something close to a strangled scream she ran her fingers through her shorn hair, frustrated when there was far less to sooth herself with than before. She began to open and close drawers, searching for something to distract herself with.

Doors banged open and closed as she looked for a distraction. She would rummage through pencils and paperwork, riffling through notebooks, looking for some project or other than she could do. She got to one drawer, closer to the bottom and deeper than the others, pulling it and finding it stuck. In no mood to be stymied, she transformed into She-ra and tore the drawer out with such force that it flew out of her hand and landed with a bounce on the bed, the contents spilling out onto the comforter and the floor.

Back in her normal form, sighing gustily as she surveyed the mess, she walked forward and started collecting the things on the floor. At least cleaning would be a distraction, she supposed. Most of what was on the floor were old war plans, long since passed useless. Something darker caught her eye, having skittered under the bed. Bending down she pulled out the torn remnants of the book on magicats that she had been reading before the mission. Her blue eyes widened and she searched feverishly for the rest of it. The book must have been what was keeping the drawer stuck and been shredded when the drawer was opened.

Sitting on the floor, carefully patching the book back together, her mind began to whirl at a mile a minute. If the magicats had arrived, as Double Trouble had claimed, on a large space ship, and been in some kind of forever sleep, how was there a book about their history? 

Pawing through the information, she found the book had been written five hundred years ago, long after the alleged crash. Adora had been drawn to the images of children and adult magicats, only skimming the information for clues about Catra. Now, looking more closely at the introduction, it became clear that much of the book had been written by collecting journals and the journals of witnesses. Very little was based on solid physical evidence. How much of this was true and how much of what Catra’s people claimed was lies? 

Head spinning, she thought about George and Lance and their research into First Ones that had led George to get a tattoo that said ‘lunch’ not ‘love’ and how historians didn’t always have the full picture. Maybe she should take a trip to the woods, with the remnants of the book, and see what they had to say? Settling on that as a plan she put the reconstructed book to the side and finished cleaning the mess. Thankfully the drawer itself had survived unscathed and slid back where it belonged. 

Unable to stop herself, she found herself riffling through the pages of that old tome until she came to the picture of a child. She stared at it, taking in the details. It wasn’t perfect, certainly it was what somebody who had read a description of what a magicat looked like might draw, but it was close enough. It was a child who looked like Catra. A child who looked like Yarsha.

If the magicat’s had crash landed a thousand years ago and nobody woke up, how could this book from half as long ago have pictures that showed them so accurately?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short hair Adora and mohawk Catra? Yes, yes please.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Water and sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is a little late. It's been written and deleted twice as I was not happy with it. Hopefully this is worth the wait - a little longer than usual.

Finding herself preening in front of her mirror, Scorpia blushed as she tugged on the hem of her blouse with her pincers, careful not to tear it. She didn’t know why she felt so anxious. Perfuma’s last visit had been a success, they had shared their first kiss and a bed, though things hadn’t gone any further than that. It had been amazing just to sleep beside the younger woman. With all the work the Plumerian’s had been doing each day in the fields , the willowy princess had been worn out at the end of each day. Scorpia had wanted to take her out and share Oasis with her, in a different way when she had just been giving a tour, but hadn’t pushed when she had seen the fatigued in her eyes.

Instead, the two of them had spent four days eating with the children and hanging out with them in the common areas. Scorpia had been delighted by how open the other woman had been with them. The children had wanted to ask a million questions about being a princess, how she had helped in the war and why she used magic. It had been interesting to hear her answers, how the magic of the Heart Blossom made her feel. Scorpia had never felt connected to the Black Garnet, even now that it was in the spire and untouched by tech. She wondered what it would be like to feel that kind of connection to something, or somebody.

It had been puzzling to see Catra interact with the single princess, and the other Plumerians. The magicat was oddly still and restrained, as though she was working hard not to make a bad impression. Scorpia couldn’t blame her best friend, she may have been a sweetheart but the scorpioni wasn’t naive enough to think that Perfuma would be compelled to tell the other Alliance members everything regarding the cat woman. 

The first night shenanigans with Yarsha and the bath had gone a long was to disabuse the Plumarian of any preconceptions about the former invader. Scorpia was used to the slapstick antics of the cat family, often with some of the orphans pulled into it too. She had simply taken their boisterous entrance as an excuse to hold Perfuma class and muffle her giggle sin her sweet smelling hair.

It had turned out, after the strange noise that Catra made as a talking duck, and the laughter of everybody in the room, that Yarsha had managed to dodge Catra in the bathroom - tripping heron the progress and sending her head first into the full tub. Scorpia had watched Perfuma’s face as Catra had told them how she got into that state. She had looked bemused and not a little charmed by the magicat. It had made Scorpia fall for her even harder than she already had.

A much drier Catra and fully dressed Yarsha, adorned in her little blue pyjamas, had joined them for dinner at the kittens insistence. She had clambered up onto the lanky woman’s lap and promptly refused to budge, eating her dinner from there. Catra had been soft and quiet, not that she was usually particularly mean these days, but after more than a decade Scorpia could tell she was on her very best behaviour. It was strange to see Catra make herself smaller like this, all for the good of everyone around her.

Scorpia hoped she would relax; and after three days things had been more comfortable. She wanted the Alliance to be able to see the real Catra who had grown out of the adversity of her whole life and not some staid person who hid herself. That would just affirm all of their fears that the woman had something nefarious to hide. She had said as much. Catra had considered her words and agreed to try to be more ‘real’ in front of Perfuma. 

Scorpia and Perfuma had cuddled together each night, the slighter woman held gently in front of her as they lay propped up in her bed, chest to back. In the twilight cast by the pale moonlight filtering through the open windows, they talked and talked as they did over coms, only now peppered with soft kisses and gentle touches until they fell asleep together. 

That had been four weeks ago, it felt like longer but at least they could speak and see each others faces every day. Today was the day that she would see Perfuma again, accompanied by the Selinean princess on her first visit to work on the ever pressing issue of water, and she wanted to make a good impression. It was important to her that Perfuma’s friends thought that she was worthy of her, that she could have been a princess just like them. Catra had told she was being ridiculous when she passed by her door on her way to work, that she was just as good as any princess, better even. Scorpia had felt touched by the gruff, almost harsh praise. Long ago she would have rushed over and pulled her friend into an uncomfortable hug. Nowadays she knew better and the two just exchanged a smile as Catra swung a giggling Yarsha onto her back and headed off with the little girl shouting about how pretty Scorpia looked. 

Satisfied with her look and knowing that it was fast approaching time to meet the new delegation. A furred head poked into her room, bi-coloured eyes appraising her from top to toe and making Scorpia blush like a school girl. She and Catra may have had a fleeting romance and be best friends now, but she could still admit to herself just how attractive she found the magicat. The fact that she was giving her an approving smile made her confidence boost, as did her words.

“You ready?” Scorpia nodded and made her way to the door. “Perfuma’s not going to know what hit her.”

“Thanks,” Scorpia felt bashful as she walked down the hall with her friend. “You sure you want to come to the shield? I can bring them both back.”

“Nah, it’ll be fine. Figure I’ll take the water one with me to the crack. I need to do a tour and check the perimeter and the equipment. Entrapta told me there was a problem on the west side, something making her equipment go nuts.” It always surprised Scorpia how Catra downplayed her responsibilities. She may not be on the council, but she did far more for the community than anyone - taking too much on her shoulders, if you asked the scorpioni.

“Where’s Yarsha?” She peered around her friend seeing no sign of the tiny kitten.

“Kyle came to get her, he was doing a pastry delivery for the kids and saved me the trip into Bazaar.” It was good to hear her speak so fondly of the man who had often left them so exasperated when they were younger.

They walked though the orphanage, saying their hellos to children who were getting ready for school. Snagging a piece of toast each they made there way out to the street and headed to the edge of the city, shoulder to shoulder. 

______________

Mermista rolled her eyes at the woman next to her as she fidgeted with her hair for the millionth time since they arrived at the barrier that blocked the world from seeing Oasis. The water princess was a little excited herself, not that she would admit it of course. That just wasn’t her brand, even at thirty. The idea of finding water and bringing it to irrigate the desert was fascinating and a challenge that she was looking forward to. Since the war and the rebuilding of Selineas were over, she had been feeling a little stifled. Here she could do something that would challenge her.

Looking over at Perfuma again, she wondered what was going on with the other woman. She had never seen her behave this way. She had always assumed that the lanky woman wasn’t interested in romantic entanglements. She always seemed to be on a higher path, thinking about how her actions affected the world around her and not herself. It was something that Mermista admired about her, though she would never tell the taller woman. It was just too much fun to tease her. The fact that her eye had been caught by a former soldier, and not just any soldier - a Force Captain that they had fought multiple times, was startling. Maybe she was hoping to change her or maybe they were always meant to have a chance and with the war taken out of the equation they had a chance. Mermista rolled her eyes at herself; when had she become such a sap? 

Mermista turned her attention to the other, equally squirrelly blond standing behind her. Perfuma’s first visit had been accompanied by ten of her people, though peaceful there was safety in numbers. Glimmer had been unwilling to let two princesses go without protection. She would have been happier to send a small army, but Queen Angella had simply cast her a look and agreed to Adora joining them. Naturally, Mermista had pointed out that Adora was also a princess, but she had seen how less and less of what others said had any impact on Glimmer these days. She had been all too keen for She-ra to be in the mix. The sea princess was ever grateful that Queen Angella wouldn’t be standing down any time soon, her calm and measured presence was needed in the Alliance.

Adora had been unnaturally quiet on their brief, Glimmer assisted, journey. Mermista would have expected her to be chattering and goofing around, just as keen as the rest of them to see more of this unique and mysterious desert hideaway. Instead she had been somber, waking behind the other two women and largely out of sight. There was something pinched about her eyes and her shoulders were stiff. Maybe the idea of interacting with so many former members of the Horde without the safety net of Bow and Glimmer was a little daunting or perhaps it was to do with Catra. Everything seemed to back to the cat woman. Obviously, Mermista had no love lost with the other woman, she had tried to attack the Sea Gate after all, but that was in the past. 

Shimmering in front of then brought the blue haired woman’s attention back and there, instead of the vista of sand dunes, stood Scorpia and Catra. She wasn’t surprised to see the pair, it was what had been agreed with the council, from the gasp at her side clearly Adora had not been anticipating seeing the magicat. Honestly, was she the only one that read the paperwork? Maybe Mermista wasn’t as transgressive as she thought.

Shaking off that notion, because really she was surrounded by squares (maybe not Catra but, honestly, the jury was still very out on her) Mermista walked forward with Perfuma. She could feel the taller woman almost vibrating with happiness as she got closer and closer to the big scorpion who was blushing warmly and looking up through thick, dark lashes. It made her feel a little like she was an interloper, but it was cute to see.

“Welcome back to Oasis,” Catra was the one who spoke up, greeting them with her rough lightly amused voice. It was a tone familiar from the battlefield, but as her startling eyes were also fixed on the women trying not to run into each others arms for proprieties sake, it didn’t seem cruel. 

It was because she was watching her friend that it took Catra a moment to notice that Mermista and Perfuma were not the only ones waiting at the shield. The tall blond shuffled uncomfortably and blue and yellow eyes shot towards her, widening almost in-perceptively before narrowing and pursing her lips. As fast as it came it passed as she turned her attention back to the white-haired woman at her side and gave her a non-too-gentle show towards the visitors.

“Give her a hug before you burst, will ya? I can feel you vibrating from here.” Scorpia blushed almost as scarlet as her shell, but was suddenly moving forward and taking an equally blushing Perfuma into her arms for a hug.

Catra turned her attention away from the tender moment to look at the two other princesses. This time not changing her expression as she looked between them. Cocking her hip and resting a hand there lazily, creepily reminiscent to both Mermista and Adora of her battlefield posse, she lazily waved a finger of her other hand between the two. “I thought the council agreed that you and Perfuma were allowed in this month?”

Mermista sighed, she should have known that nobody would have thought to actually tell the people they were, for all intents and purposes, spying on that they were bringing more people. No way that could cause an incident!

“Queen Angella thought it best that Adora accompany us this time, you know how it is.” She tilted her head and made a noncommittal gesture with her hand. Far more diplomatic than saying they didn’t trust them.

“Scorpia!” Catra’s slightly raised voice broke the two women out of their low conversation and made the scorpioni’s head swivel to her. “We have extra company.” She indicated Adora with her hand, “You represent the council. Is she permitted entry?” 

“Oh, oh I see. That should be fine. I will speak to the rest of the council when we get back. I mean, it would have been nice to let us know beforehand…logistically.” A look of consternation passed over her face as she turned to look back in the direction of Capital. She looked back to Catra and jerked her head towards something which elicited an exasperated sigh from the furred woman as they both started to walk back inside the shield. “Please follow us.” Scorpia threw over her shoulder. 

Perfuma was the first to walk in, clearly already feeling safe and at home within the shield, Mermista and Adora weren’t far behind but made sure to look for any potential ambush as they did. They saw nothing there except for two vehicles a small ways off. One was a transporter like the ones that had ferried then to the city on their first visit while the other had two far wheels and could clearly only accommodate two people. It was matt in colour and looked harsh and aggressive, it wasn’t a surprise to see Catra pick up a helmet that had cat ears protruding from it, to know that this was hers. She looked from the helmet in her hand, to Adora and Mermista and sighed heavily, walking over to the larger vehicle.

“So, how do you want to do this? The plan was for Perfuma to head back to the city with Scorpia and I was going to take Mermista to look at the fissure where we suspect we could get another irrigation source. I guess it’s up to Adora to where she wants to go.” There was something steely in her words that made Adora have to fight against squirming.

Adora had known that coming to Oasis without notification was a bad idea, but she was desperate to com back to the place so didn’t speak up. She had yet to be invited, having nothing to offer this burgeoning place or so it seemed. They didn’t need a legendary warrior. Nobody did anymore… shaking off those morose thoughts, she made eye contact with her old friend, realising that she may have hesitated too long in responding as she notices a taught tail fighting against lashing. 

“I should probably go with Mermista, take a look at this fissure?” She meant it as a statement but her voice rose at the end faltering and turning it into a question.

“Fine. Pretty much what I expected, can’t let the evil beast take the princess down a big hole by herself,” it sounded self deprecating and Scorpia laughed, but Adora noticed the cloudy look in her eyes as she spoke. “Scorp, you got a helmet in there? Mine’ll probably fit Perfuma. You can take the sled back and I’ll use the wagon.” Both of the desert residents moved over to the large vehicle and Scorpia pulled out two helmets and stuffed some small items into her pocket.

“I have a helmet you can wear Perfuma, we keep spares for the patrols in the wagons. No cat ears I’m afraid.” She was smiling, voice full of mirth and everyone relaxed. Scorpia took Perfuma’s bag and put it in the wagon, Adora followed suit with hers and Mermista’s, reaching passed Catra to put them in the bed of the truck and shivering as she felt fur brush against the skin of her arm.

“OK, so you two head back to town and we’ll go to the crack. I’ll keep in contact.” Catra ushered her two charges to get in as the two taller women mounted the smaller vehicle with helmets firmly attached. Engines roared and the two groups headed their separate ways.

_____________________

The fissure turned out to be an intimidatingly large tear in the ground that seemed to stretch for miles in a jagged curve. One side rose up above the crack while the other was rocky and prevented the transport from getting too close. The journey had been quiet, save for Catra filling the duo in on what they were about to approach.

“This area, that we call the fissure, is actually a deep gauge in the ground caused when the Halfmoon crashed. If you follow the curve you see here, the terrain alters and you will find the crater that I discovered when I found the ship. We’re hoping that what we suspect is an underground reservoir is sitting just underneath it but we can’t risk anyone mining lower and Entrapta can’t make a bot small enough. Hence you. We’re hoping you’ll be able to find it, if it’s there.”

“Sounds like a challenge, but if you have water I will be able to find it.” 

“I…I got the impression from what Double Trouble told us, about the ship, that it was much further away from the city?” Adora’s voice had been low but very curious. Mermista noticed that the blond was trying to make herself quite small as though she shouldn’t be there.

“Hmm…” Catra’s distracted hum made both passengers look out of the front window to see her manoeuvring around several rocks and heading towards a small group who were waving welcome. “It was days away from where the shanty town was. Capital as you see it now is almost on top of the ship. It helped Entrapta rig the ships shield and cloak to hide Oasis.” Neither princess knew what a cloak was but they could guess. What shocked them was the idea of how big this ship was. They had heard that thousands of people were on it, but the only space craft they had ever seen was Adora’s First One ship and that was no bigger than a house. The idea of something as big as a city being able to fly at all was mind boggling. “We’re here.”

The wagon stopped and Catra was out without another word, heading towards the group of four magicats who were shouting and waving. Not knowing what else to do, they followed, picking their way carefully over the craggy ground. As they got closer they could make out the words that the young men and women were saying, there was nothing suspicious just the excited greetings of people happy to see one of their own.

“Chief! We thought you were only bringing one person?” A head popped up from the ground as a grey cat pulled themself over with bared claws and brute strength. They stood, head just reaching Catra’s shoulder, and shook themself hard, a dust cloud puffing out from them. Adora coughed and waved a hand in front of herself to clear the air. When the dust settled, the new arrival was shown to be black, rather than grey.

“Kesh, why were you down the hole?” The older cat’s eyebrow was cocked as she waited for a response.

“I was just fixing the climbing rigs, I checked all five. I must have known you were bringing more people.” Bright, pale blue eyes turned to the two human women and appraised them. The eyes of all of the other magicats joined them and Adora found herself fighting not to squirm. Beside her Mermista seemed as cool as ever under the scrutiny. Catra was still staring fixedly at the younger female. “What?”

“You all know that you are not to go down there alone. It’s too dangerous.” This wasn’t her command voice, but something more like Adora would have expected Catra to use with her child.

“We knew where she was, Chief.” A bulky calico furred man spoke up, his voice a low burr that could be felt as much as heard. He was clearly young, but had a serious demeanour. “We were all here waiting. If anything had happened we would have had her. You don’t need to worry about us out here. Nobody is risking themself. We were all just excited that you were bringing visitors from outside.”

“I just wanted to be ready, Chief!” Kesh’s voice was youthful and exuberant. 

“You all need to stop calling me that.” Catra shook her head, affectionately exasperated. Adora understood, it was annoying to be called by your job title and not your name.

“We could all start calling you CC?” This came from another male, younger than the others, with pure white fur and a charming smile that bared his wicked teeth.

“You can try and see how far that gets you.” Looking around, she seemed pleased with what they had heard. “When do you guys rotate?”

“Three days. Then Jorth’s here with Midrall and some of the younger kids.” The deep voice was soothing and it was hard not to listen to him. 

“Thanks Varga, you’ve been doing a great job!” The man almost giggled at the praise and it made Adora happy to know that Catra was gentle with her people. “These two are from the Alliance, they’ll need rigging up.” 

Adora waved self consciously, making several of the onlookers tilt their heads to take her in and she wished that she could hide behind one of the boulders. Seeing so many adult magicats in one place was strange, the blond was trying not to get caught staring. It was one thing to see all the children together and the odd adult on the street of Capital, but six of them all at once was a lot to take in after a lifetime of thinking that Catra was the only one.

Adora didn’t know what she expected, but like when she reached Brightmoon she saw individuals of all different shapes and sizes. Their was fur ranging from steely grey to almost luminous orange and some of the even had whiskers. They were all dressed similarly though, much like Catra was dressed today. She had foregone the sandy uniform in favour of shorts that clung down to the knee and a singlet with a close fitting tee underneath. Looking at the fissure, it was obvious that this was what they wore to climb to allow themselves freedom of movement. Adora looked down at herself and over to Mermista and was glad that at least they were both wearing pants to climb down.

While Catra pointed out equipment and explained it to Mermista, Adora examined the group while pulling on a climbing harness. Most of the magicats were around twenty, she guessed, and all were very focused on Catra. They nodded at her words, some chipping in to add information about climbing down. The small, energetic cat who had climbed up, Kesh, was helping Mermista to secure her climbing gear, softly pointing out how the ropes would work.

“I hope neither of you are afraid of heights or tight dark places.” Catra stood on the edge of the ravine, looking down.

“You know I’ve never been afraid of heights.” Adora smiled, voice light.

“People change, Adora. Can’t take anything for granted.” The words were flat as she walked to the edge of the cliff and let herself fall over the side, unharnessed.

Both Adora a Mermista dashed to the edge, breathlessly looking down to see what had become of the cat, only to see her hanging by her claws dug deep into the rock. The laughing at their backs as the other magicats saw their shock and worry. Kesh, who just come over the side of the ravine, rested a gentle hand on Adora’s back and said, “She’s a little bit prickly but she’s okay.”

“Yeah…” It was strange to have somebody take to her as though the hanging woman was a stranger to her.

“You two need to wait until she gets to the bottom, she’ll radio up so that she can monitor your descent. Do you both know how to abseil?” It had been a term that the cat creatures had learned, not needing the ropes themselves to climb, and they had been fascinated with how the humans dealt with their lack of claws.

“Yeah, it was something I was taught growing up.” Adora wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t want to tell these people that she had been Horde.

“Great, how bout you?” The eerily pale eyes turned to Mermista who shrugged, she had never down this before. “Ok, how about blondie goes down first and you can watch what she does and I’ll show you how the rig lets you belay?” It was clear that this small group were used to letting people down here.

Adora walked to the edge of the chasm, checking her ropes one more time, before she walked her body back into the abyss.

________________

The bottom of the deep crevice was dull, twilight lit by small phosphorescent lamps attached to the walls at shoulder and ankle height. It was enough to be able to navigate without risk of a turned ankle or bashed head. As Adora shucked off her harness, she saw large torches waiting to be used by the climbing equipment. The wobbling of the rope to her right caught her attention and she watched as Catra reached up to steady it. The muscles in her arms were bunching under her fur and the dim light silhouetted them. Adora found it hard to look away, she had noticed the physical changes in the magicat on their first visit, but now she could look unabashedly while the other woman’s focus was on Mermista’s slow descent.

Catra was so much taller and broader than she remembered, her hands sure against the rope as they stretched up and held firm. She watched biceps bulge as the rope started to wave and she pulled it harder to steady the woman that had let out an undignified scream from above. Her face broke into a small, familiar smirk at the sound as she ruefully shook her head and steadied her former foe. A pang of something familiar filled her chest, she had seen that look a hundred times in training when Lonnie would be losing or Kyle would fall. As much as she had changed, there was still a part of Catra that still seemed to be the girl she had known. 

Adora fought her desire to let her eyes roam over the body of the woman in front of her further. It was one thing to watch her control the rope, she could convince herself that it was because she wanted to ensure Mermista’s safety, another to think about the strength of her legs or the way that her toes flexed in the dirt. Even as children she had admired the wild physiology of the other girl, how differently her body moved and how her fur and claws made her seem dangerous. Adora had always found comfort in her differences, had studied her movements to try to be more graceful in her own; it was how she had learned to climb the rickety places of the Fright Zone adeptly enough not to fall to her death. Now her need to look was not about studying her form, if it ever had been, and she dragged her gaze away.

As the blond walked over to the neatly piled equipment that was kept down here, Catra guided Mermista the last of the way down and unhitched her harness. When the three of them were together by the lights and packs, Catra handed each of her companions a light the size of a brick and a small pack containing a couple of ration bars and canteen of water. Mermista looked at her as she slipped the strap of the bag over her head, Adora doing the same beside her. Catra was looping her pack around her waist so that it rested on her hip.

“Why the supplies?” Mermista’s monotone fell flatly between the close, steep walls that enclosed them.

“We’ll be down here a while and we never take chances. A cave-in isn’t likely,” her tone became weary at the words, “but if we were to be trapped down here its better to be prepared.” 

Before they set off, Catra moved to the far wall, several feet away, and placed her hand against it and then her forehead. She stayed like that for several beats before pulling back and joining them again. There was something about the gesture that made Adora think of late nights, whispering to each other in the dark, heads pressed together for comfort. Whatever was behind that rock wall obviously had meaning.

“We need to follow the crack until it branches, we’re pretty sure there’s no water here, but it comes into three branches and from there its all you.” She pointed her light at Mermista. “This is the widest point, it’s why we put the comb here, it gets pretty tight up ahead. In some paces you might need to go sideways. You shouldn’t get stuck, just don’t panic when it gets small. You mind going up front, Princess?”

“Why?” Mermista’s voice was suspicious and she seemed more than a little perturbed.

“It’ll be hard to change positions up ahead and we’re going to following your water sense.” There was no sign of subterfuge in her voice so Mermista lit her torch and started to walk.

Adora was next, showing trust in their guide as she took the middle position in their little procession. Her boots crunched on the gravel under her feet and she wanted to ask if Catra was comfortable with her bare feet. There were a lot of things that she wanted to say, and if her last visit was anything to go by this might be one of the few chances she got to be close to the other woman. She opened her mouth, about to speak when a rough voice stopped her.

“I like your hair. Finally got rid of that pony and poof combo. There might be a chance for you not to be bald by forty.” Her words were playful, and Adora tried not to read too much into them, just an observation from an old friend. But she did turn her head, shooting a bright smile at the magicat and stumbling over a loose rock in the process.

She braced herself to hit the floor, but long arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close to a warm body inches from the ground. Catra pulled her up, arms still holding her tight. She was sure that the feline could feel her heart pounding. She hoped that she would chalk it up to the adrenaline of the near fall rather than being held so close to her. It was the first time that she had touched Catra in a decade, after a lifetime of gentle tussling and not to gentle fights, giving each other comfort where there was nobody else. Even when they were at war, there was always touch. 

“Still clumsy though,” the words were soft in her ear, long strands of hair and fur tickling her cheek.

A disgruntled ‘argh’ broke the moment, Catra’s arms loosening so quickly that Adora barely stopped herself from falling again. She smiled sheepishly as she turned on her own torch and Mermista resumed her trek through the claustrophobic place. Adora kept her gaze on the ground, not wanting to embarrass herself further, while Catra chuckled behind her, light bean directed higher than the ground.

It took some time, the aperture narrowing as she had said it would, but by the time that Adora’s shoulders were brushing lose sand particles from the walls with every step, they were at three branching tunnels. Well, two were tunnels, completely enclosed and no longer lined by the small lights, while the third was a narrower part of the fissure. Catra shone a torch down each one, not revealing much but oppressive shadows.

“So, here’s where you come in.” Adora noticed that Catra was trying very hard not to call Mermista by a facetious nickname. “We found evidence of water in all three, but Entrapta was certain that one of these tunnels had to be the origin. She’s been trying to make, her words, ‘teeny tiny bots’, to send down here and get into the smallest cracks. Nothing she can make is small enough or could get the readings we need. As much as we hadn’t intended to show ourselves to you, your arrival couldn’t have come at a better time for our water supply.” 

“Well, wouldn’t want anyone to die of thirst out here, would I?” Mermista set down her torch and took of her small pack.

“What’re you going to do?” Catra’s ears were pricked forward, all of her focus on the woman at the head of the group. 

“I’ll need a while, I will have to send my magic out and see if I get an echo from the water.” She took a deep pull of water from her canteen, ensuring that she was hydrated enough to really feel the potential spin. “You aren’t going to leave us down here if I come up empty handed, right?” Mermista looked wryly at the magicat.

“Ah, my nefarious plans foiled once again by the rebellion!” Catra looked serious for a moment before giving Mermista a big grin over Adora’s shoulder. “Then there’s no water here to find and we get you to look somewhere else.”

“Good to know. You two need to back off, give me some space to focus. I’ll call you when I get something.” Nodding, Catra and Adora backed up in the tunnel, far enough away that they could keep an eye on her but not close enough to disturb her.

Catra sank down to the ground and pulled a ration bar from her pouch, tearing open the paper. The crinkling sound of the wrapper made Adora turn in the cramped pace, joining Catra on the ground. She glanced at the food that the other woman was eating, it was the same shape and size as the ratios they had eaten in the Horde but that was where things ended. Adora pulled out her own and opened it, taking a large bite and moaning in pleasure as she chewed. There were dried fruits and nuts in the snack, bound together with something sweet and light. She was so engaged with the food that she didn’t notice that mismatched eyes were watching her fondly as she slowly ate her own ration. 

Before they could do anything more than look abashedly at each other, a triumphant whoop echoed around the rock walls. It was a sound so unlike the usually droll woman that they were both on their feet instantly. 

“You wanted to know which tunnel had water?” Her dark eyes were sparkling with glee. “They all do! There is a huge reservoir down here, so big that I couldn’t feel it all. It’s deep, the moisture up here is just condensation. It’s going to take work to get it, but there is enough water there to last you years!” The whoop that filled the place this time came from Catra, and Adora couldn’t help but smile.

_____________

Six months had passed quickly for the Oasis liaisons. After her visit, Adora had become a staple of both Perfuma and Mermista’s visits. The two princesses tried to stagger their visits, so were seldom there at the same time, after Mermista’s initial trip, it meant that she spent almost half of her time there. So much so, in fact, that Scorpia had gently suggested four months in, that she should get her own place there, rather than staying at the hotel. She had baulked at the idea. Adora may be making life changes, yet the idea of having a permanent place anywhere outside of Brightmoon was daunting.

Eventually she had agreed to keeping a room at the hotel, that she could leave some stuff there. It still didn’t feel like home, but walking into a familiar room, bed made just as she as she left it with her own unique assortments of nicknacks picked up in the desert. The scents of clean linen washed in her favourite detergent, helped her to relax. The longer she spent there, the more she missed it when she was in Brightmoon. Just not enough to leave. Not yet, at least.

She knew, given the opportunity, that Perfuma would be here just as much as she was. Her blossoming romance with Scorpia was heartwarming to witness. The two of them were well matched, balancing each other in a way that she had never had with a lover. Sometimes, she wondered if Scorpia would ever consider heading back to Plumeria with the princess? It was obvious that Perfuma could not, would not, leave her people and the Heart Blossom. Yet, she doubted that the ex-soldier would leave this place either, her devotion to the place that she had helped to build and the children that she cared for was palpable. Adora wondered if the relationship could possibly survive the distance. 

One thing that had been surprising was how easy it had been to fall back into the friendship with her old squad. Spending time with Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio made her feel more normal than she had in a long time. When they looked at her, she felt like they were seeing her, Adora, and not looking for She-ra just below the surface and what she could do for them. It was funny, but in a lot of ways she would have expected them to see her only as the warrior she had become, rather than the awkward, cocky girl that they grew up with. 

Kyle had been the one to sit her down and explain that she didn’t need to make anything up to them or impress them. It had been her fourth trip in two months and she had found herself back at their bar night after night. She spent too much money and got too many drinks, sometimes sitting with Mermista and Sea Hawk or Perfuma, but more often than not coming alone and sitting at the bar. She didn’t lie to herself, she knew she was always waiting to see a particular pair or unusual eyes but Catra never showed up. 

Kyle had come to sit beside her after finishing up a set on stage. Rogelio had come out from the kitchen with a steaming bowl of something that smelt mouthwatering, place it down in front of the man and leaned over for a kiss before casting his eyes over to the woman who was unconsciously licking her lips and letting out a chuffing little laugh. Adora was left bemused as Kyle grinned through a mouthful of stew. Before she could think of what to say a matching bowl was placed in front of her and Rogelio was tousling her short hair affectionately before disappearing back to the kitchen.

“There’s no need to look so shocked, Adora, we know you’re always hungry.” Kyle’s voice didn’t break anymore but it was still high and light. He nudged her with his shoulder when he saw she hadn’t picked up her spoon and pointed with his own. “Dig in.”

They sat together, side by side, as they had a hundred times before and devoured the food that Rogelio had made them. It was several hundred steps up from what they had eaten in the Horde. Bowls half empty, Kyle balanced his spoon on the edge and took a swig of the water he always had with him, before turning sideways on his stool and looking softly at her. Adora’s cheeks were bulging as she crammed too much food in and chewed noisily, humming at the flavour until she realised she was being watched and self consciously slowed her chewing, swallowing and putting down her own spoon. She wiped her face with a napkin and tried not to blush.

“We’ve missed you, you know?” It wasn’t what she had expected him to say and she felt tears welling in her eyes.

“Why would you?” She was pleased when her voice didn’t crack and the tears stayed in place.

“Because you’re one of us, Adora. You were when we were five, you were when we were sixteen and you still are. We might have lost you for a while,” She opened her mouth to say…something, what she wasn’t sure, but Kyle pulse a hand on her arm and squeezed. “You should never feel guilty that you left us. It was the right thing to do, and maybe we should have come too. We just weren’t as brave as you. But we’re all here now. You’re here with us and we’re so glad.” He patted her arm again and sat back, picking up his own spoon. “You better eat up or Rogelio will have your head.”

It had been the first of many trips to see the trio and their children, she found herself eating with them a lot. They would laugh and reminisce and catch up. The children were funny and liked to ask her is she had embarrassing stories about their parents, and she was happy to tell them much to the chagrin of all three other adults. As much as she wanted to know more about Catra, she never outright asked. Occasionally, Lonnie or Kyle would say something about her, but never more than just how busy she was or what her little girl had been up to.

It was the children who talked about the magicat the most. Digby was clearly much enamoured with the adult magicat and would happily talk about how smart and strong she was and how she had been found in the tube just beside his. That had cut to her quick, realising that this little boy could have been ripped from his sleep and brought to the Horde, not Catra, and how different their lives would have been. Each time she sat on the floor and played a board game with them, she found herself looking at his little face and remembering ten year old Catra, still all ears and giant mane, her face already pinched and taught with fear and bitterness. 

It wasn’t that Adora never saw Catra. In fact she saw her almost every day. The oldest of all the magicats seemed to work from dawn till dusk almost every day. Not always at her job, which seemed to encompass anything from building a wall to planting crops to breaking up a bar room brawl and a seemingly never ending pile of paperwork. Whenever their paths crossed Catra would smile or wave, the odd tension between them still there but the magicat seemed to have got over her discomfort with Adora. It was all the blond could do not to trail the other woman around like she would have when they were children.

More than once the two of them had worked together to divert the water that Mermista had managed to locate for them. The work to build the irrigation systems and the water towers was backbreaking but neither woman ever stopped or complained. In some ways it was like training, both of them doing their best to keep up with each other, except this time Catra was the stronger of the two. It was unexpected when the leaner woman could swing the sledge hammer over their head for longer, while she had to stop and take a drink, wiping sweat from her brow. Even as children, Adora had always been the physically stronger one while Catra was faster. Now it seemed, that if Adora wasn’t She-ra she couldn’t keep up with her. They would trade smiles and sometimes talk about nothing just to fill the time.

There was no talk of the lost love, but Catra would willingly share tales of Yarsha, smiling softly as she thought of the little girl. It was sweet to see and Adora found herself wishing that she had similar storied to tell. Instead she told anecdotes about her early days in Brightmoon and the misadventures she had along the way. Stories that would once have made the furred woman bristle now made her laugh and occasionally shove the human’s shoulder. The same as she did with anybody else she worked with. This adult Catra was more open, accessible to the people around her. She spoke and laughed with them, listened to their problems and tussled a little.

Adora wasn’t special anymore. Not the centre of Catra’s attention when they were together. It shouldn’t hurt. They hadn’t been close for far longer than they hadn’t seen each other. They had fought a war on opposite sides, but even then Adora had felt like the centre of the Horde soldier’s attention. Always the one she engaged, taunted and struggled against. Now she was just one of a crowd of people to share casual jokes and pass the time at work. It was never more than that though. They never spent time with each other outside of the work. It shouldn’t hurt, but it did.

What hurt even more was when she saw Catra and Mermista share a laugh as they watched their respective children play together during informal meetings about the projects that were being undertaken. After the first visit, Mermista had agreed that Sea Hawk could tag along and bring their four year old son, Sturgio. The boy was the spitting image of his rambunctious father with Mermista’s colouring and predilection for eye rolling. Watching the boy, who towered over the kitten who was eighteen months his junior, made memories of her and Catra spring to mind. She was about Sturgio’s age when she pulled a small, scared toddler from a box.

She would watch the two of them caper across the floor, or Sturgio fail to climb up a set of shelves and end up laughing as he tumbled and was then pounced on by a chubby ball of fur. Their was only happiness in their play. They had no self consciousness, neither of them feeling like they had to watch out for adults who would tell them that their games were wrong or pull them apart. From time-to-time, Adora would join the children and crawl around the floor being a dragon (never a unicorn, she would never hear the end of it from Swift Wind if she did) and chase them until they screamed with laughter and jumped all over her. She was no stranger to children, Netossa and Spinerella had a herd of them now and she spent plenty of time with Mermista’s boy, but she seldom felt the pull to engage in play with them. Maybe it was just a yearning for a childhood that she had missed that she could see in them, or maybe it was just a way to understand more about Catra.

Mermista, after some initial reticence had struck up a firm friendship with the magicat. They were both acerbic and wry, digging at each other with verbal blows designed to annoy not hurt. They were well matched and sought out each others company. Catra said it was because everybody around her was too soft, and had been looking pointedly at Scorpia at the time, while Mermista claimed that now that she had married Sea Hawk she needed some adult conversation that wasn’t fawning all over her. Adora thought that they were just full of it. She wasn’t jealous, she told herself. She shared the time together when they worked, but only then.

It hadn’t taken long for her to start seeking out company, it was a coping mechanism that she wasn’t proud of. Juliet would be bitterly disappointed in her. She was disappointed in herself, but the more time she spent in Oasis the more she needed something that was just out of reach. The first time it happened had been an unconscious thing brought about by too much alcohol… 

Waking up came slowly. Heavy blue eyes fluttered open, the pounding in the back of her head making her feel weak and queasy. Quickly she pressed them together, hoping that the return of darkness would calm the nausea rising in her stomach. She tried never to get drunk enough for a hangover, especially in an unfamiliar place. Clearly that rule had gone out of the window. Throwing an arm across her eyes to shield them even further from the light, she tried to puzzle together the night before. She had been at the bar, laughing and having fun with her old and new friends when she had seen Catra walk through the bar, hand in hand with the short, dark furred magicat she’d seen around. Kesh, she remembered her name was, probably three or four years younger than Catra. 

The two magicats had been laughing, bodies close together as they walked into the curtained area and straight to the doorway behind the bar that she now knew led to Lonnie’s home. They had disappeared up the stairs, the younger woman’s tail brushing against Catra’s hand and Adora had felt a pit open in her stomach. That’s when she had started to drink.

At some point, she vaguely recalled leaving the safety of the bar she knew and, against the protest of the others, heading to one of the seedier bars that lined Bazaar. She had never been anywhere else, so she picked the closest place and headed straight to a corner table and a drink. Then another. Then another. She paid little mind to the colourful inhabitants of the place. It was on her third or fourth drink that things had become hazy around then edges. Vaguely she recalled standing and maybe...dancing? Things were a blur after that. She thought she had felt fur , heard purring but wasn’t sure why.

Letting out a frustrated sign she flung out her arms across the bed. A loud yelp made her wince as he arm hit something very solid, very close to her on the bed. Mind working slower than normal it took her a moment to realise that the noise had been more than just something painfully loud. Recoiling so far back on the bed that she fell to the floor, she found herself looking up from a pile of sheets and into wide, confused yellow eyes.

“What’re doin?” The voice was hazy from sleep and the lingering affects of alcohol. “Why’d you hit me?” There was high indignation mixed with the befuddlement. 

Looking down at her was a magicat, fur rumpled and hair tousled. She was naked, her pale grey fur striped darker across her arms which were holding up her head, as she looked at her with open confusion and blatant interest. Adora looked down at herself and saw that she, too, was naked but thankfully covered by the dislodged sheets. She looked back at the other woman and felt her mouth go dry at the sight of her breasts pressed together against the mattress. 

“Um...morning?” As much as Adora may have been notorious for sleeping around, she’d never woken up with a stranger in her bed.

“You don’t remember any of last night do you?” Their was amusement in the sleep deepened voice.

“I mean... I ...you...we?” Somewhere, there was a sentence in Adora that was desperate to get out but couldn’t.

The lithe, grey cat stood unselfconsciously from the bed and padded her way over to the open bathroom, making no effort to cover herself. Adora watched the sway of her hips as she moved, the way her fur moved across her skin and her nipples hardened in teh cool air. She was slight, little muscle or fat covering her frame. Stripes climbed all along her arms and across the small of her back and buttocks. She bent to pick up the clothes that were scattered around the room and Adora forced herself to look away from the swishing tail, face flushed. The woman noticed her discomfort and let out a giggle that seemed too shrill and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Adora scrambled to her feet, opening a drawer and frantically pulling out her grey underwear. Standing in front of her desk she pulled in her shorts, catching a glimpse at herself in the mirror that sat there. She was brought up short, seeing that her back was littered with shallow scratches, reddened but not painful, none had broken the skin. Something felt very wrong, seeing those superficial marks crossing the two sets of parallels scars that she kept on her back, no matter how many times she transformed. They had long since faded to pale white, thin and barely noticeable but always there.

Hearing movement in the adjoining room, she hurriedly pulled on her vest and moved to put the sheets back on the bed, resolving to strip it and ask for clean sheets as soon as her guest was gone. By the time that the grey magicat walked out, she looked much more awake, wearing the cropped top and harem pants that she must have been wearing the night before. She was certainly sexy as she walked straight to the door, but bile rose in the blond’s throat as she realised why this girl. The stripes, the slender frame and the confident way that she carried herself.

“You outsiders really are quite odd, you know? But verry sexy!” She purred the last as she gave a lascivious wink that made Adora shiver before walking out of the room.

It was only as the door clicked shut that she realised that she hadn’t even asked her name…

After that, every interaction with Catra was laced with guilt that Adora couldn’t quite quell. The more she wanted to push for a meeting with the just the two of them, the more she found herself pulling in Mermista, Perfuma or Scorpia. Catra seemed more bemused than anything, nonplused by her odd behaviour and why would she be bothered? It was clear that although she was happy enough for them to be colleagues and acquaintances the magicat had too much going on in her life to think about anything more with Adora.

_____________

The council chamber had become a very familiar space to the Brightmoon delegates. With each visit they would have to check in with the council, at first all five members but as time progressed they met with Double Trouble in what had become, for all intents and purposes, a gossip session. Double Trouble was just too charismatic to resist and they had all come to like the slender lizard. Whether they trusted them was a different matter, there was always something going on behind those slit pupil eyes, as though Double Trouble was filing away everything they did or said to be used against them, should the need arose. Thankfully it didn’t seem like the need would.

Given how much they had helped to achieve in Oasis, Glimmer had been pushing for them to get more answers. She was still fixated on the mystery of the Halfmoon. No matter what they told her in meetings or reports she still believed that there was something being hidden in the community. They humoured her, but there was only so long they could go without bringing it up. 

This meeting was to be more formal, they had requested all five members of the council be there so that, when they made their requests, it could be fully considered. At this point, with the three of them and their families, and lovers intertwined with Oasis, they couldn’t conceive of any reason why the request would be rejected. Adora knew that Glimmer wanted to be the one to search the Halfmoon, but that was not something they were willing to ask. The citizens may be happy for one of the people they knew to go down there, but not a stranger who was antagonistic towards their way of life, at best. 

Sea Hawk and Sturgio had walked them to the large building, the little boy talking a mile a minute about going to visit the other children at the playground. Mermista had watched Sea Hawk wander off down the street, their son’s hand clasped in his as he pointed out bright colours that caught his attention. She had kissed them both goodbye after they delivered her to the meeting, Perfuma and Adora had waved, and she had been happy that these two bright, ridiculous people were hers. That Sturgio had fallen in love with the children of her former enemies seemed almost symbolic of what this place could be for all of Etheria, a fresh start and a sign that things could change for the better.

Due to the more bureaucratic nature of this meeting, they found themselves waiting in the foyer of the council building. The public waiting area was tucked in a corner, surrounded by potted plants and contained several soft chairs. Perfuma was delighted and began to make the potted plants stronger and bloom. Other people who were waiting for their appointments ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ at the spectacle. The general ban on magic was still curious to the visitors, nobody having an answer beyond the fact that they wanted to rely on it as little as possible. The people didn’t seem to fear or hate it. It was a question that they hadn’t asked for fear of the answer.

Waiting was not something that Adora was good at and after ten minutes she found herself searching for something to do. Mermista was dozing in the chair beside her, Perfuma talking with two other women as she made flowers bloom, so Adora began to people watch. It was something that she had picked up in her early days in Brightmoon, when she felt like a freak and an outsider, watching the people there to learn how to fit in better. Glimmer and Bow had helped with that, taking her in and making her feel loved and accepted, but she had worked on it on her own too.

Looking out into the main area she noticed a new receptionist, this one an older woman in a brightly coloured floral blouse. Her face was somber and she dealt with the people who approached the desk with curt efficiency. There was no small talk or laughter today, and Adora found she missed the young man that they usually dealt with. He seemed to love his work here, although she supposed this woman was much more efficient at getting through the lines of people with their requests for land, materials and all manner of other things that affected their lives here. Oasis may seem like a series of unrelated spaces, but she had quickly learned that everything was done with forethought and planning.

She looked away and saw a little boy run in, shouting incoherently before launching himself at the leg of a tall, thin man standing in line. The child had close cropped purple hair and a happy, high pitched voice. He was, perhaps, the same ager as Sturgio but seemed a little small for his age. The big man moved a broad hand to rest on top of the head by his thigh and the child preened, rubbing into the touch as though he were a kitten and not a human child. It was adorable and showed how integrated the different species were here.

Adora stopped watching the boy and the man, worrying that she would seem creepy, and took note of how many people were coming and going from the council chamber. They had, perhaps, chosen a very bad day to need to see the council. Pulling her attention back to Mermista, she nudged her with an elbow as she noticed a little trail of saliva on her chin. She snorted and shot upright in her seat. Adora couldn’t help but laugh, pointing at the other woman’s chin and watching as she wiped away the offending drool. The two were just starting to talk when a raised voice pulled the attention of everyone in the foyer.

The tall man, back still towards them and small boy nowhere to be seen, was now in front of the receptionist, gesturing wildly as the woman sat impassively in front of him. There was something strangely familiar about the body language and deep burr of the voice. They were too far away to hear the words, but that tone sent a shiver down Adora’s spine. She looked around and saw no recognition of her friends faces, so turned back to examine him more. His tone had quieted but he was still waving a piece of paper in a bone white hand. 

He was dressed in dark blue overalls and heavy boots, a cap pulled down on his head. He was thin and lanky, nothing that seemed familiar to her but she couldn’t stop looking at him. His broad shoulders were a little hunched and his stance was rigid. Why did she know this man? The receptionist finally seemed to relent and picked up a communicator before motioning for him to head towards some doors in the back. It seemed like she had been worried for nothing.

And then Hordak turned, red eyes shadowed under the brim of his hat, and marched deeper into the council building.  
_____________

“Of course we have to tell Brightmoon! We have to pull out the tracker pad and tell them right now!” Mermista’s voice was loud in the small room, echoing around the place with anger and betrayal.

Sea Hawk had taken their son to Adora’s room, leaving the three women to decide how to deal with the bombshell that they had discovered. None of them were still, Perfuma was sitting cross legged on the floor trying to compose her breathing while Mermista a paced. Adora was at the window, looking out at the city and picking at the wood around it with jittery fingers. None of them could believe what they had seen was real. If he was here, everything was a lie!

“We should talk with the council first, or go to Scorpia and Cat…”. Perfuma’s voice was broken, soft and raw as she considered that the life she had started to build could have been an elaborate deception.

“You want to talk to Catra? She was his right hand! They’ve been hiding him, hiding the ship…what else haven’t they told us?” Adora’s voice was completely inflectionless. Dead. Her back still to them rigid and hand now still.

“She’s right. We need to tell Brightmoon that Hordak is here and walking around like nothing ever happened.” Mermista didn’t want to, she had liked this place, but the truth seemed to be staring them in the face. Month’s of Glimmer’s suspicions and vitriol seemed to have been manifest and made flesh.

“No. We can’t tell them over the tracker, what if they’ve been monitoring our communications all along? It’s what I would do if I was trying to get under the skin of an enemy.” All their training, shared under the iron fist of Shadow Weaver, she knew how Catra thought. “We head back to Brightmoon as we planned. We don’t say anything. When we get back we call a meeting and decide where we go from here.”

It made sense. They all hated it. What would happen to the families and children that they had got to know? Where would the orphans go if they had to take this place apart? 

“We don’t know that they’re doing anything bad!” Perfuma was on her feet now, hands balled into fists at her side and body tense in a way that neither woman had seen from her before. “Scorpia wouldn’t lie to me, we’ve never asked what happened to Hordak. I’m sure they would have told us if we had.” She moved over to the window and made Adora turn to face her, “Do you honestly believe that Catra would use children as a shield? Would put all these people in danger?”

Adora roughly pushed her hand away, “I don’t know anything. We leave here tomorrow, we alert Glimmer to get the Alliance together and we meet with them.” 

Perfuma pulled away, shaken by the coldness in those blue eyes. She looked to Mermista and saw the same edge in hers. Breathing out what sounded like a sob, she walked out of the room and down the hall. She didn’t close the door behind her, and the occupants of the room watched her walk passed her own room and down the stairs. Their was no doubt where she was going. It might be the last time she saw Scorpia outside of a combat situation. There was no doubt in their minds that she would betray them, Perfuma was loyal to the Alliance, there was no harm in letting her have the night.

Adora had no words to share with Mermista. She left in Perfuma’s wake, opening the door to her own room and seeing Sea Hawk, Sturgio cradled in his lap, singing softly to the sleeping boy. He looked up at her as she entered his bearded face as solemn as she had ever seen. For months he had been here with his whole family, making friends and letting his only child play with the children of those who might turn out to be their enemies all over again.

“Sea Haw…”. Her voice was soft, but he shook his head, cutting her off. He rose with his child in his arms and made his way out of the room. 

Adora took the seat that he had left, curled up and wept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Glimmer gets WILD!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when things were looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You just need to imagine Entrapta saying the name 'Stanley' in the same way she says 'Darla' in that 50s sitcom voice.

Running a brush through Yarsha’s hair was a soothing act for the pair of them. Catra hadn’t thought that she could ever find solace in something so mundane and repetitive, but the simple motion of the brush through the dark mass was almost hypnotic as she watch it become shiny and sleek. Yarsha’s hair was the same colour and texture as Tace’s had been, and it was a gentle reminder that although the other woman may be gone, a part of her would always be with Catra in the form of their kitten. 

Small, content purrs drifted to her ears from the little girl seated on the chair. She liked to look in the mirror as her hair was brushed. She felt like a big girl. In truth, Catra couldn’t believe that her little one would be three very soon. It felt like only yesterday that one of the techs had unsealed the womb and placed a tiny, slimy bundle of fur into Tace’s arms while she hovered over her shoulder, looking down at what the two of them had made. Yarsha’s ears had been pinned back to her head and her eyes tightly shut, downy fur covering her whole body but nothing that resembled hair on her head. Catra had fallen in love with the little gremlin looking thing immediately. Now she was growing like a weed, already standing taller than her Ra’s knee, with her mane long and wild even when tamed by the brush.

“Hey, Yarsha, would you like me to ask aunt Kesh to braid your hair?” Catra rested her head on top of the little ones and met her merry yellow eyes in the mirror.

“Like Zu had?” She reached out a chubby hand and tugged on the two thin braids that hung in front of Catra’s ear, a memory of her mate that she saw each time she looked in the mirror. 

“Yeah, like Zu had. You’ll look just like her,” not quite true, Yarsha was every bit as much Catra as Tace, but the child always preened when told she looked like her lost parent.

“You can do it?” Big, trusting eyes looked up at the woman she thought hung the moon. 

Catra sometimes wondered how her daughter would feel when she got older and inevitably learned about Catra’s past, would she still look at her with love or with contempt? She always tried to push those thoughts aside. Tace had told her, when she spoke those thoughts aloud when the baby was a few months old, that she was worrying at shadows that had never been cast. She was right, of course, but Catra didn’t have much luck with shadows.

“No, Yar-Yar, I can’t. I’m good at a lot of things but not that. Kesh can do it, you’ve seen her wear her hair like that.” She put the brush down and lifted Yarsha so now she was sitting in the seat and the kitten was sitting in her lap, looking up at her. “Aunt Kesh is Zu’s sister, remember? She can teach you things that Zu’s parents taught her, like how to do your hair. Won’t that be nice?” Fingers tickled at the plump little belly making the child giggle and squirm on her lap.

“Yep-Yep. I have pretty hair and then I can get clicky claws!” Sometimes, Yarsha didn’t quite get how Scorpia was a different kind of aunt to Kesh and it made the older magicat chuckle.

“No big red claws for you, I’m afraid. Scorpia is a different sort of creature to us. You get to grow up and be a big cat like me.” She cuddled her closer as she spoke, planting a kiss on top of her already messy hair.

“But Scorpia is our fambly!” It was hard not to coo over how sweetly the little one tried to say ‘family’.

“That’s right, she is. But not because we were born the same. We are family with Scorpia and Rogelio and Kyle and Lonnie and all their children because we chose each other. Families can be made all different ways.” She placed another kiss on her fuzzy forehead. Talking like this with Yarsha lately made her thoughts travel to the long absent blond who had become a fixture in her life again. 

Meeting Adora again when the Alliance had stumbled on them had led to a lot of conflicting thoughts. She had moved on from her adolescent longing for a girl who couldn’t love her back, that had been left back in the war. Lost in the fog and adrenaline of building a life in the desert and then completely buried when she kissed Tace for the first time. But still, seeing someone who had been such a part of making her who she was, who had helped her learn what love could feel like, even if it had been only as a friend, in a place where she was so often treated like something that could only suffer wrath, it had still taken her back. Made her wonder if that love had been buried for good or just put into stasis.

Knowing that the blond was looking for her had eventually led her to the bar on that last night of their stay. Of course she had seen her in the council chambers and at the bar during the awkwardly invasive meetings. Adora had even seen Yarsha which had never been her intent, but she had learned to let go of the little grievances a long time ago. The big ones, the slights that had sliced into the fabric of her were harder to heal and though no longer open wounds were more scabs than scars. They had been easy to ignore for a long time, but that was before…

Shaking those melancholy thoughts away lest they drag her down a dark path of a different kind, she helped Yarsha pull on her dungarees and a tie-dyed t-shirt that Perfuma had given her on her third visit. She snapped the straps together, pulled a pouffy tail through the hole specially cut into the seat and tied the uncontrollable hair into a sloppy pony tail. That was something she hadn’t learned how to do from Adora. Yarsha, already bouncing on her bare feet, grasped her hand and pulled her down the hallway. The kitten was always excited when she got to go to the Spire. It wasn’t a place they went a lot and when they did she got to ride on the two wheel with her own special little helmet on. 

On the walk to the edge of the city, Catra watched fondly as Yarsha ran ahead, always casting little glances over her shoulder to make sure Catra was there, skipping and twirling without a care in the world. It was a gift that Catra had promised herself she would give to every single child in Oasis, Horde or magicat. No child should have to grow up living in fear, thinking that they had to be of value or be discarded. It was something that she had pushed and pushed until the council were sick of her, but the children were as carefree and happy as it was possible to make them. Many of them, those old enough to really remember their lives before, were still troubled but their wounds were healing with time and affection. 

Children on her mind brought her back to Adora again, as though the women was just ricocheting around in her head. To say that Catra had been surprised to see her arrive alongside the water and plan princesses that second time had bee an understatement. Really, she shouldn’t have been, it was a very She-ra thing to do. Come to act as an entire army to protect the others from perceived danger. It had just been startling because in Oasis, there was peace, it had been a long time since she even thought of herself as a threat, let alone her world as one of war or menace.

Her changed appearance had also thrown Catra for a loop, if she was honest with herself. Adora had always been strictly uniformed, even when she left behind the place that the uniform belonged to. Yet, there she had been, stood out in the desert with her hair cut almost as short as Scorpia used to wear hers, artfully tousled and making her look so much younger than the tight, staid ponytail. Her clothes were lose and more appropriate for the climate in shades of orange. When she had walked through the shield the first time it was as though she had been preserved in amber. Now it was like she was a butterfly emerged from a long stay in a drab cocoon. Catra hadn’t quite known what to do with that, so like the teen she had once been she had dealt with it though passive aggression and snark. She had regretted it once they were down the hole.

Adora had blushed when she had told her that her hair looked nice, of course she hadn’t been able to say it like that and instead had felt the need to tease. Finding her arms wrapped around the other woman in the confined space of the tunnel seconds later as she saved her from herself had not been something she meant to do, but when she had seen her trip she couldn’t avoid the instinct to catch her. She had always caught her; when she fell over her own feet on the way to train, when she tried to climb too fast and lost her grip, when a box slid out from under her. Catra had always been fast and agile enough to catch her, not always strong enough to stop her fall, but they had always fallen together. Until Adora learnt to catch herself. The close contact had triggered something in her, something old and skittish. Something that made her withdraw. 

“Hey, fuzzy-butt, come back here!” The little cat had almost disappeared around a corner but spun in a pirouette and dashed back to wrap herself around one of Catra’s legs and got a stroke along her ear in return that made her wiggle. “Up-up.” Then there was a purring bundle of love in her arms and they were leaving the city, on the path to the vehicle.

Putting a crash helmet onto a toddler is an interesting proposition. It’s too tight. It’s too itchy. It squishes their ears. They want to do the chin strap. After some coaxing, and promises that Yarsha could stick some pretty pictures onto it when they got home, the helmet was fixed securely and the girl was sitting astride the body of the sled. Catra pulled on her own helmet and acknowledged that it did, indeed, squish her ears, before throwing her leg over and sitting behind her daughter. She pulled the child into the curve of her body, and reached for the handlebars, surrounding Yarsha in a cage made of muscle. The little girl held on tight to the handle that sat in front of her as they moved off and made the several hour trip to the edge of the shield.

As they passed through the changing terrain, Yarsha was hypnotised by the scenery. Catra couldn’t help but think of being out here with the various princesses. Perfuma had proved to be a hard worker, getting her hands dirty as much as she wove magic into the plants and the dirt. She had always seemed like the member of the Alliance least likely to be there, and now after interacting with her she saw that just like Scorpia she wasn’t made for fighting. She was glad the two gentle women had found each other. They were going to make the loveliest parents to all of the children in the orphanage when they got their act together.

In those fields she had dug earth, lifted boulders and sewn seeds shoulder to shoulder with her old bunkmate. They had worked together with smooth efficiency, each tirelessly caring for the land while Perfuma infused the ground with her magic. They had already been able to grow some crops, but cereals had seemed impossible until the magic of the Heart Blossom was pushed into the ground. It had warmed her heart to see Adora help with such gusto, a place that had no meaning for her. They talked and joked about nothing at all, as Catra did with the other farmers and volunteers. She had learnt, over time, that you couldn’t only focus your attention on one person if you want to keep your sanity. It had been nice, to integrate a lost part of her past into her present.

Working with Mermista had also been interesting. She had never really thought of the mermaid princess much beyond the fact that she controlled her least favourite element and had a boyfriend who was deeply annoying (even in the heat of battle talk of the crazy pirate and his singing was notorious). Yet, as they worked together to bring the water up from the large well that she had found, it seemed that they were very sill people. Neither were easily impressed or cared to suffer fools. They bickered back and forth, causing many of the Oasis citizens to look scandalised, but enjoyed every moment. Then, when Mermista began to bring her husband and son along with her, Catra had seen that the crazy pirate wasn’t so bad.

In fact, once she introduced Sea Hawk to Kyle properly it was a bromance at second sight. The captain had hearts in his eyes as he watched Kyle sing and when the fair man pulled him up and let him take centre stage, their friendship had been sealed. Having a fellow parent to talk to who was just as jaded as her, who had changed as much as she had with the passing years and the mellowing influence of love and family had been comfortable in a way that she didn’t feel with anyone else. 

Adora had been a surprise too. Watching her play with Sturgio and Yarsha, crawling around the floor or spinning them around had made Catra feel soft. They had never really been around the smaller children in the Horde, and when they had been near the creche or the first years, Catra had always felt so bitter as she watched them run around, not afraid of every move they made, or injured, that she could only loath them. Now, it turned out, that Adora was just a big puppy as she let the kids crawl all over her. It was a shame that she had always been destined to be a soldier, Catra thought that she would have fit right in at the creche. 

She’d expected the blond to seek her out more, maybe had wanted her to a little bit. She avoided the bar at night, she would rather be with the children when she wasn’t working in the evening and she certainly wasn’t looking for a hook-up. That held very little appeal. She needed to trust a person implicitly before she let them touch her like that, too many hands had taught her that touch was dangerous with the wrong person. In fact there were only two people that she had trusted that way, one was gone and one was spending a lot of time swooning over a certain tall blond. That warmed her heart too. 

But Adora had never come to find her by herself. It just showed that, as well as changing her appearance the other woman had grown-up in other ways, and one of those was that she didn’t need to live in Catra’s pocket anymore. It should have been a relief to know that they had both moved forward, able to live happy and complete lives. Even if those lives contained their own losses and pain. Part of Catra wished that she would come to talk to her, that they could maybe reminisce on some of the good times that they had shared, in amongst the bad. Not to say that Catra sought out the other woman either. She could have, she knew where she was, but it felt wrong. Like crossing a line.

The spire loomed closer and closer, filling the horizon and Catra increased the speed of the vehicle to get them there. It was a strange structure, smooth and knife like as it reached into the air. It had been found in a hanger of the ship, not with the equipment for colonisation. It didn’t match the design or the technology of the rest of the magicat’s equipment, so its origin was in question to start with but it contained a lot of very useful scientific equipment that Entrapta had jumped on. It was obvious why the magicat’s had kept it in their already well stocked ship. It reminded Catra of the First Ones edifices scattered all over Etheria, but lacking the showy designs on the outside. Entrapta had been certain that it wasn’t First Ones, which had made her even more excited.

Bringing the sled to a stop, waiting for the solar motor to still, she puled off her helmet. It was a tight fight and took more effort than she liked but eventually she managed to free it and place it on one of the handlebars. She reached down and did the same for Yarsha. Thankfully her helmet slipped off more easily and the little girl was leaping from her seat, hitting the sand and scrabbling to her feet as she made her mad dash for the imposing doors. Out this far, though still inside the shield, there was still only sand and heat. It had been decided that bringing the grass and crops out this far was not prudent yet, so it stood alone in the nothingness. Humming. 

Catra’s ears always twitched uncontrollably when she came out here, the sound wasn’t unpleasant bu the frequency was constant and disorientated her a little. Yarsha didn’t seem to feel the effects, probably too young to make out the frequency. Meeting the smaller cat at the door, she lifted her so that she could place her hands against the entry pad which bleeped merrily under her hand opened the doors for them. Entrapta hated to leave her lab, just like she always had in the Fright Zone, so anyone that was a regular visitor could let themselves right in. It seemed like that trait had been passed to all the other inhabitants of the spire, nobody coming to check who had walked in.

Yarsha dashed down a sterile, white corridor, claws ticking against the shiny floor. She would occasionally slip a little and wobble her way back to her feet. Catra laughed, sound echoing along the corridor as her own feet padded in the same direction. Soon a new sound was echoing back at them, making Yarsha squeal excitedly before a small boy zoomed towards her and the two small children collapsed in a heap on the floor, hugging and kissing each other all over their smiling faces. Catra shook her head at their antics, the little boy barely bigger than his slightly younger friend was always very excited to see them. Before she could reach down and settle kids on their feet, another small figure turned the corner.

“Hey Junior, this one get away from you?” Catra addressed the tiny man who was standing, looking up at her with his wings folded at his back.

The man, formerly known as Imp, smiled a sharp smile up at her, his yellow eyes crinkling with affection. In the Horde he had been nothing but a tool, now he was a brother and a son and it had made him re-evaluate who he had been to the other youths that he had spent his young life spying on. He was still small, barely bigger than the two children on the floor, but he was as old as the woman in front of him. He concentrated, a series of sounds coming from him before he pieced together what he wanted to say.

“He. Is. Very. Excited.” His voice was made from a series of other voices, stored and pieced together to make his own. No longer did he record and report those stolen voices. “We. Have. Missed. You. Both. Here.” 

“Us too. Lots to do in the city though. You could always come into Capital with the others, you know. Everyone would be pleased to see you.” It was true, though at the start it had taken longer to build trust in the boy who had been responsible for so much pain because of his duplicity. But he had been small, isolated by Hordak and his condition as a boy without a voice and they had all too soon taken him in.

“No. Better. Here.” It was hard to explain that he felt better in this place that reminded him of home, with people who didn’t look at him and think he was the strangest of a very strange group. That, and he liked the quiet. “Mom. Is. In. The. Lab.” He quirked an eyebrow, seeing Catra do the same, because of course that was where she was. 

“You going with?” Catra gestured down the hall.

“No. I. Will. Take. The. Children. To. Play.” There was a large playroom set out in the spire and Catra was more than happy for Yarsha to go there.

“Thanks, Junior. I’ll drag Entrapta out of her lab and see you there.” She leant down and kissed her kitten on the head before rubbing the little purple head affectionately and throwing a jokey salute to Junior. 

Entrapta’s lab in the Spire was…something else. There were monitors everywhere showing a dozen conflicting readouts. On work benches scattered around the large space were bots in various stages of manufacture, soil tilling machines being improved and sections of irrigation purification units being fixed. It was just as chaotic as her lab had always been, but much tidier. Catra still understood none of it. In all the white and chrome there was no sign of the equally chaotic owner of the space. But Emily sat in the corner.

“Hi Emily, where’s Entrapta?” The machine whirred merrily, beeping a discordant sound and the swivelling to lift and point a leg towards a wheeled vehicle some description. Catra still couldn’t see the woman, but thanked Emily with a pat on the dome before walking to that part of the room.

As she got closer she saw that the wheeled rotavator sat over a pit cut into the floor with Entrapta distinctive humming coming from it. Catra laid herself out on the ground and poked her head over the hole, watching Entrapta be caught up in something she was fiddling with in her hands. She was solely focused on the task that she never noticed Catra’s presence, it was a rare turn about as Entrapta was most likely to startle an intruder rather than vice versa. 

“Hey, ‘Trapta, what you got there?” Catra raised her voice and sniggered as a squark came from the purple haired woman and she toppled off the perch of her hair and the metallic object clattered to the floor. 

“Catra!” The woman’s oddly modulated voice was bright and cheerful as she realised who had spied her. There was no sign of anger as she climbed out of the pit using her hair. Catra pounced to her feet and her purple haired friend patted her on the head with a thick purple lock of hair. “Is it time for your visit already?”

“Apparently so.” Entrapta was a nice constant in a world that was often in flux.

“Stanley has been counting down the minutes, I should have realised.” Then she was moving briskly out of the room and all Catra could do was follow her in the same bemused way she always did.

“Where’s big and creepy?” It was unusual to not see the tall man in the halls when they arrived.

“Hordak is in town. We were all there this morning for supplies, he stayed because he had business at t he council hall.” Entrapta could be shockingly vague when she wanted. 

Catra was pleased. It wasn’t that she feared or hated the big man, when he had surrendered himself in the Fright Zone she had realised that he had been just of weary of it all as the rest of them. He had understood that he couldn’t just be one of the people and until the spire had been kept in a cell but Entrapta had been his biggest advocate and that they had chosen to live together away from the city had been a relief to everyone. Oasis was a place for second chances and it seemed that Hordak was just as keen as the rest of them for that opportunity. For all of the it was hard to look at the man, even minus the armour that he didn’t need anymore, and not see somebody who had used her, tortured her and sent her out on a fools errand to die. But look at him she could, for all his faults he was not the one who had shattered her. She was long gone even before Catra’s desertion.

The two women entered the playroom and the small boy rushed at Entrapta, wrapping himself around the small woman. Watching, Catra thought that sometimes Hordak must feel like a giant in this place where everyone else was so small and delicate. The child burbled up at Entrapta with the same cadence as his mother but with words that were inarticulate and hard to understand. He was bright and funny and imperfect, and his parents loved him.

“Stanley! Have you shown Catra the schematic you made?” Entrapta’s eyes danced as she spoke to her child. He was up and out of her arms, running towards his little art area almost before she stop speaking, grabbing a sheet of paper and runny back to thrust it at Catra. He looked up at her expectantly as she looked at his drawing of a building. It was very well rendered for a four year old.

“This is great Stan-my-man!” His little face looked confused for a moment before breaking into a huge grin and running off to babble at Yarsha who babbled right back. 

Junior came over with a glass for each woman, Entrapta wrapping a lock of hair around his shoulders as the three adults went to sit in the sun streaming through the large windows of the playroom. Catra had been bemused by the fact that none of the other Princesses had sought out Entrapta, they saw her fleetingly but never looked for her. They were curious like that, the Alliance, so quick to talk of unity and friendship while keeping their distance from anyone who was too different. 

_______________

Glimmer paced the courtyard like a caged tiger. Bow watched her, knowing that she wouldn’t appreciate the comparison, his dark eyes tracking her every movement. It was distressing to see her so pent up and agitated. The carefree times from the past seemed to get further and further away the older they became. Bow wasn’t naive, he knew that eventually Glimmer would take responsibility for part of the kingdom. He had been one of her biggest cheerleaders when it came to tearing down the Fright Zone and building it anew, but as years passed and it became more and more clear how much the earth had been poisoned and how much of a slog it would be to turn the industrialised complex into a habitable village, Glimmer had become more and more angry. Her frustration displaced into snappishness.

Bow felt lost in Brightmoon these days. He could no more leave Glimmer than slip off his own skin, but he knew that he was being left behind. She no longer talked to him about her hopes for the future or her plans. She would disappear at night. He knew she thought he didn’t know. He had followed her a time or two but had lost her in the maze of hallways as though she was trying to hide. He didn’t know what it meant but it couldn’t be good. 

He had considered an intervention, but the idea of going to the king and queen with this seemed like a betrayal of her. They were a team and they would get through this together. He just knew it. He just needed to be calm and patient. It was hard to do when she looked so agitated.

When she had received the message on the tracker pad from Oasis, the fairly cryptic message had sent her into a frenzy of activity. All Adora had said was that they had found something troubling but that had been enough. Glimmer had called up the other princesses, demanding their presence but swearing them to secrecy. Her rationale for not sharing this with Queen Angella was that she didn’t want to bother her if it was nothing, but if it was something then they would be ready to stroke at once. Bow wasn’t comfortable with the aggressive language. It was as though she had already made up her mind.

Soon enough the whole of the former rebellion were gathered in the secluded, seldom used garden that had been handed over to Shadow Weaver many years ago to keep her out of trouble. The witch was nowhere to be seen but her presence could be felt in the place. 

“We should really go and speak to the queen.” Perfuma’s eyes were darting around the garden. She felt the hairs stand up on her arms, something out here making her skin crawl, though for all she could see it was just the younger members of the Princess Alliance.

Glimmer had intercepted them as they came through the castle gates, hustling them through the courtyard and into the garden with its host of colourful and exotic plants. Some so rare that even the Princess of Plumeria couldn’t identify them. It should have been her favourite place in the palace, so full of nature and vibrancy, but every time the tall woman came here her blood ran cold and she couldn’t wait to leave. Today the garden was not empty when they got there. As Mermista, Perfuma and Adora walked through the trellis at the entrance, they found themselves surrounded by Frosta, Netossa and Spinerella.

“Speak to her about what? You said you had found something troubling?” This was the Glimmer he knew, her voice was calculating but calm. She was excited without him feeling the more recent mania seep from her.

The three women looked between each other. None of them wanted to be the one to drop the bombshell and fracture the peace. Glimmer almost demanded the information, the silence deafening, when Adora sighed as though the world was weighing her down and spoke.

“We were waiting to meet the council, to ask them if we could finally see the Halfmoon. There was a man there, I noticed him because he was so tall…and there was a little purple haired boy…” her face, just for a moment, broke into a soft smile that shattered as soon as it appeared. “The man was loud, he got our attention…”

“It was Hordak.” Mermista couldn’t bare listening to Adora stumble over her words. 

The gasp that went around the group was one of shock and horror. They had just assumed that the leader of the Horde had been killed in the uprising or executed later. It seemed a silly thing to have thought now, after being in Oasis. Everyone had been given a place. Why not the greatest enemy Etheria had ever known? 

“Off course Hordak is there! I told you all. Catra is running the place. I thought she was running it alone, hiding behind the councils skirts, but clearly its the same as it ever was. Hordak and Catra deceiving us all until they can strike!” Where the others looked shocked and disturbed, Glimmer’s expression was nothing short of glee at being vindicated in her zealous disbelief.

Bow was unsurprised that she had a plan that she revealed to them all then and there. For six long months she had plotted and planned. Her fixed interest on the crashed space craft had not been assuaged. Perfuma was the only one who had fixedly demanded that they tell the queen, but Glimmer could be persuasive. Very persuasive and even he could see her point. Queen Angella had hidden from the war when they were children, who was to say that she wouldn’t do the same this time and leave them exposed?

Glimmer gave them no time to think. She gathered the princesses and headed straight back to the hidden kingdom. She left Bow behind.

_______________

Perfuma and Adora had both been gifted with keys to the shield, meaning they could pass in and out of Oasis without needing to be met there. It had been a sign of trust. A sign that they had both been accepted as members of the community. Adora, all but living there, it had just made sense that she would have access whenever she wanted. As for Perfuma, nobody was blind to her love for Scorpia. Now, all of the princesses stood at the border created by the shield, magic buzzing. All but Perfuma. She had refused to be a part of their plans.

Adora respected that the other woman had taken a stand. Her words to go to the council about Hordak had fallen on deaf ears, but she would not bow down to Glimmers grim insistence. No matter how incensed the pink haired girl became. Her only concession had been not going to Angella and not to contact Scorpia. It had been clear in her eyes that the latter had broken her heart. In fact, after the confrontation in the garden, Perfuma had packed her things and gone straight home to Plumeria, disgust clear on her face. It was not an expression any of them had seen there before and it was jarring.

Holding the small device in her hand, Adora felt sick. She had fought countless battles and even looked death in the eye, but she had never felt sick before going into the fray. Sweat was slick on her palm. She knew that this was wrong, but Glimmer was and had always been the leader of the rebellion in her mind. Glimmer the head, Bow the heart and her the hand. She squeezed with a trembling hand and the shield shimmered away. Nothing was on the other side but an empty wagon that was always waiting and the distant silhouette of Capital.

“The Halfmoon is a couple of hours that way.” Mermista was the one to volunteer the information, pointing to the West. Of course, after her first visit she had known where the ship was. The border wall of the fissure forming one edge. It hadn’t been hard to find a map in the city showing the crater. She had looked more out of curiosity when Catra had told them how big it must be, than any malice. But now she found herself weaponising that information.

Glimmer’s plan was three pronged; find out what they had to hide on the Halfmoon, take that information and the revelation that they were harbouring Hordak to Angella, then take the city with the full force of the Alliance. Oasis would be taken completely off guard and a war would be averted before it could even begin. Mermista wasn’t entirely sold on why that was the plan, but Adora had nodded sullenly in agreement with Glimmer’s words and that seemed to be good enough for everyone. After all, if there was nothing to hide in the ship, then why hadn’t they shown them? If Hordak got his hands on weapons as advanced as everything that had been used to build this place, then they were all doomed.

Adora was careful to drive the wagon away from where they knew people were posted at the fissure, taking a wide detour until they were at the edge of the crater. It felt wrong to be here without Catra. Very, very wrong. But she had a duty to protect the pace that had taken her in so she led them down into the crater. They were in luck that there were no teams here today. She knew that usually there were groups based here.

It wasn’t hard to find the entry tunnel. The cavern was illuminated by a series of lamps and it was easy to follow the path of lights to the opening in the ship. Rope ladders and pulley systems hung down the deep hole. Glimmer led the way down, commanding them to stay together in case they were to encounter somebody there. The further they descended the more eerily quiet it seemed. 

Lights burst to life as they passed each level. Glimmer’s curiosity was piqued just a little ways down by a corridor that clearly saw a lot of use. There were tables and equipment that had clearly been recently used so they left the climb and walked the long wide halls. At the end, a giant door stood open. Netossa and Spinerella stationed themselves at the entrance when the others walked in. It was hard not to gasp at the huge screen that covered the wall in front of them and the array of equipment that they didn’t understand.

While running her hand over one of the dead consoles, Glimmer thought of how fascinated Bow would be by all of this. She had left him behind in case it was too dangerous, or that was what she told herself. If she were being honest with herself, which she was less and less these days, she had left him behind so that he could not tell her no. she was caught up in her awe and fear of the place, as were the others, that she failed to notice the small red light under her hand begin to pulse menacingly.

They would need to come back with Bow to know for sure if any of this was weapons systems but in a ship this size, there was little chance that it wasn’t armed. The size and complexity of the bridge was intimidating to them all and as one they agreed to go deeper into the belly of the beast.

_________________

Tapping out a bored rhythm on her desk as she drew out another sheet of data from the farmlands, Catra yawned hugely. Yarsha had slept poorly the night before, waking crying from a nightmare about being chased by faceless black figures. Catra had lifted her into her arms and settled them both into her large bed as she crooned softly to her. She sang softly until the little girl was once again in a deep sleep. Catra had been unable to follow her into slumber for some time, her little girl’s description of the nightmare far too reminiscent of her own childhood fears.

Her black, faceless demons had been real though. When she closed her eyes and dreamed of being chased and locked away, it was her mind working through the pain of the reality of those situations. She had also lain awake, troubled by the sudden departure of the three princesses. She had hoped that once she returned from the Spire she would be able to invite the whole group to eat at the orphanage. Entrapta had had some of her frank and incisive words to share about her mixed feelings about connecting with Adora again. She had decided to take it.

When she had got back and gone to the hotel, she had found that they, and Mermista’s family were gone. Adora’s room was still full of her things so she hadn’t been too concerned. They were princesses, after all, it was entirely possible that business in their own kingdoms had called them away. The chances of Selineas and Plumeria both having a crisis at the same time seemed slim but not impossible. Even so, something struck her as wrong.

Scorpia had also been noticeably absent, locked in her bedroom and not answering when Catra knocked softly on her door after putting the kitten to bed. She had also been gone when they got up this morning. It ruined Catra’s whole routine not to tease Scorpia before dropping Yarsha at the bar. She could call Scorpia, but if the woman needed some time to deal with Perfuma being gone she didn’t want to interrupt.

Stretching to go along with the yawn, she was just picking up a pen when a siren sounded through the room and her gut dropped out from under her. Somebody was on the Halfmoon who shouldn’t be. Somebody had breached the ship and the princesses had disappeared.

Rage boiled through her. She stood, almost flipping the table in her haste to get out of the room. Around her every magicat was puffed up and growling. Everyone could hear the signal but for them it was like nails on a chalkboard, a warning impossible to ignore. 

Without words they were moving fast, heading towards the Halfmoon. Men and women spilling from shops and offices, children streaming out of school as the siren called them to protect the place that they had come from. 

The place that had been betrayed.

_________________

Pure rage filled Catra, pulling a roar from her chest when she entered the pod room that echoed and amplified as it moved around the room. Her teeth were bared, claws extended and the fur on her shoulders puffed up making her look more dangerous and terrifying than she ever had been as a skinny teen in the war. The other magicats growled, their rage joining with hers as they too took up a battle stance fanning out behind her, and behind them, blocking the door to the death chamber and filling the corridors were men and women representing every specie that lived in Oasis.

Catra advanced on Glimmer, who pulled up her glitter bombs, ready to fire at the enemy. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stood in the room full of death. She had made a massive tactical error, but there was nothing to say that she could’t pull it back to her advantage. Take out the obvious leader of the army and then call in back up. Either way it would force her mother to take a stand! She was unwilling to think about what that stand would actually mean. 

She fired, magical blows that show have pushed the advancing feline back hit her in the chest and dissolved like so much confetti. Around her, she was vaguely aware of the same happening. Mermista had no water to conjure with and stood, impotent, Frosta the same. Netossa threw an energy net that covered two magicats who had surrounded her only to dissolved as one swiped at it with an errant claw. Spinerella threw out a gust of wind that raged around her and was a gentle breeze by the time it his the line of predators. And Adora, sword held aloft, the cry of ‘For the honour of Greyskull’ on her lips, felt nothing and she too was surrounded.

Then there was no more room for projectiles, Catra was on her. She pounced from a few feet away, body colliding solidly with Glimmer's own, throwing her against the wall with enough fall to make the cracking of her rib audible as all of the air was pushed out of her lungs. There was no time for a breath as agony lanced through her, two hands were placed around her throat and squeezed. No claws, just all force. Spots began to dance in front of her eyes as Catra’s face pressed close to hers. Close enough to kiss. Close enough to bite. Luminous eyes bored into hers as the hands held firm, just short of choking. Glimmer ineffectually brought her hands up to scrabble weakly at the furred arms, desperate to be able to take a deep breath. As darkness began to cloud the edges of her vision and consciousness started to slip away aa voice cried out.

“Catra! Stop!” It was a voice familiar to both when locked in the deadly embrace.

Catra’s hands loosened imperceptibly as she whipped her head to glare with fire filled eyes at Adora who still held her sword limply in her hand. Magic denied her she couldn’t bring herself to raise it against the righteously indignant crowd. They had come into this place. They had desecrated a sacred place. They had made an error in judgement. The only people to blame here were themselves. Adora saw Mermista’s head bowed in shame, clearly feeling the same. The others simply looked lost, standing among the coffins of thousands of lost souls.

“You don’t get to tell me to do anything!” That roar was back, raw and laced with more venom than she had heard from the younger woman since Brightmoon. Adora flinched as it was directed at her.

“Think about what will happen if you kill her. The Alliance will attack you.” Her voice felt thick, like the words were stuck and she was having to force them out. 

“What is this is not an attack on us?” Relief flooded Adora as she saw Catra’s hands move away from Glimmers throat as she let her fall in a heap at her feet, head lulling but still breathing. Catra stalked towards her and Adora shrank back, genuinely afraid of the other woman as she had never been before. When they fought as teens she may have felt betrayed, now she really had been.

Looking into mismatched eyes that glowed with rage, she spoke quietly the only justification that they had. “We saw Hordak.” Said aloud in this place, it seemed like a petty provocation indeed.

She hadn’t expected laughter. She probably should have. Catra’s maniacal laugh had been one of the worst things about fighting with her during the war, it wasn’t a sound she had ever heard before but it had seeped into her and coloured every memory of every laugh that they ever shared together. It was bitter and cruel. She was so close to Adora that she could feel the furnace like heat radiating off her fur in the dimly lit room, eyes glowing like coals. Adora could easily have run her through but she was paralysed by shame.

“You saw Hordak?” Her head was shaking in utter disbelief. The other magicats in the room were watching her, taking their lead as they stayed guarding their catches. “You saw Hordak, and thought, what? That was what you’d been waiting for to destroy us? We let you in, share our home with you and all that time you were just biding your time? Waiting for a reason to come in here and take us out?” 

Adora wanted to deny it. It wasn’t true! She, Mermista and Perfuma had loved their time in the city. It was them who had broken the trust. Even in her own head it was no excuse at all. Catra was right, Glimmer had just been waiting all along and they had all been so blinded by the sins of the past that they had let her guide them into a disaster.

“Did you even think to ask?” Her voice was softer now, broken in a way that Adora had heard before and hated that she knew.

Her mouth opened and closed. Nothing came out. It was answer enough. Catra looked over to Mermista who wouldn’t make eye contact, eyes downcast to the floor. She said no more, instead making a sub-vocal sound that galvanised the rest of the magicats in the room. The princesses found themselves roughly grabbed and marched out of the pod chamber. Adora noted that a few stayed, clearly about to inventory the dead and make sure that they hadn’t desecrated them. Her skin crawled.

It took far less time that she imagined it would to get them all out of the ship and up into the crater. When they emerged into the bright midday light, the crater was full of magicats, more emerging from the ship entrance. It was as though, somehow, they were all here, waiting. All the young survivors of the Horde genocide, down to the children that she had seen surrounded them in a wide circle. Above, on the rim of the crater, a motley collection of representatives of the rest of Oasis looked down with scowls on their faces.

The princesses were released in the large circle made by the magicats, only Catra among them. Adora could see that Frosta wanted to say something, anything, that could absolve them, but there was nothing to say. Glimmer, at least, was able to stand now holding her ribs with one hand and rubbing at her rapidly reddening throat with the other. Her eyes were focused on Catra and still burned with an unnaturally feverish fury. 

Adora, and the others, were so focused on Glimmer and Catra, that she failed to notice a figure approach her until a crack rang out around the crater and her head snapped back from the ferocity of the slap. Instinctively bringing her hand up to her cheek she met the eyes of the grey striped cat she had spent a night with. Her eyes were not laughing now. Instead tears streamed down from anguished depths. Her arm pulled back to strike agains when arms wrapped around her from behind and Catra pulled the sobbing woman away.

“Don’t, Nar. Don’t.” The words were soft, contrasting sharply with what had gone before.

The grey magicat, Nar, sagged in Catra’s grasp and turned in her arms to bury her face in her neck. If the whole assembly hadn’t been so eerily quiet her next words would have been lost. Except it was quiet. Quiet as the graves they had disturbed.

“Did they hurt them?” The words were broken and the meaning clear.

“No.” Soft at first, Catra lifted her voice to make sure everyone could hear. “No, they did not touch the bodies of our parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts…” their was a palpable breath out as young men and women turned to clutch each other in relief.

Catra passed the young woman into the arms of a vaguely familiar male magicat. Adora felt tears rolling down her face. The reality of the fact that every magicat here, even Catra, was an orphan left behind by the death of the people in the room struck at her chest. Catra was standing in front of Glimmer, hands clasped behind her back this time, eyes locked with equally angry ones.

“So where’s mommy?” It was a clear taunt, a poke into an old wound that everyone had been able to see when they were younger. A wound that Glimmer had never treated.

“I…She…”. Before Glimmer could form a lie, another voice was speaking out.

“We can without royal permission or decree. The Alliance doesn’t know. This was our mistake, don’t let it take us to war.” It was Frosta, taking control and seeing the situation for the egregious mistake it had been.

“Wow.” Catra looked genuinely bemused. “Just that desperate to go back to fighting and killing, for what? To say you won? We ended the war without more bloodshed, that not enough for you?”

“Hordak…”. Glimmer tried again. Catra was no longer listening.

“Tell Queen Angella what you have done. Tell her that we are only reason you are going home and not being thrown in our jail is courtesy. We will speak only to her. You are banned from entry to Oasis. We expect to hear from her within three day.” She was walking away before any of them could speak.

“Or what?” Glimmers voice was rough, but it was like she couldn’t stop.

“Let’s not have to find out.” It was thrown over her shoulder as she led the magicats up the sides of the deep impression. They climbed up the sheer sides like liquid and from moment to the next they were alone in the crater. As though they had imagined the scene.

Nobody spoke as they made their way back to the wagon that they had been left. Nobody spoke on the drive to the shield opening where a phalanx of uniformed guards waited, weapons in hand. Adora and the others got out, making their ways to the opening in the barrier. As Adora passed, a hand was thrust into view. She looked up and saw Lonnie looking at her with sad, sad eyes. She placed the entry device gently into her palm. She wanted to say something, apologise for ending the tranquility, but there were no words. She had turned her back on them once, and now she had done it again. 

“At least Perfuma didn’t come. It would have broken Scorpia’s heart.” Lonnie's voice was raw as she held back tears. Her words said one thing, but Adora knew she was saying that she had broken all their hearts instead.

The barrier closed behind them and they were once again in the middle of the desert. They began a desolate trudge away, their trackers jammed until they were far enough away that the signal from Oasis was lost. With one call, their would be transporters coming from the closest villages, ready take them back to Brightmoon.

Adora couldn’t bare to stay with the others. With a thought Swift Wind was in the sky above them. His usual cheer dampened by what he could feel seeping out of her through their bond. Glimmer reached out, as though to stop her and she roughly threw off her hand as she climbed aboard the winged horse and into the sky. She couldn’t face heading back to Brightmoon, facing Queen Angella, so like a coward she ran away towards the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:  
> The best dads in Etheria.  
> What do you mean magic doesn't work on magicats?  
> Angella is not best pleased.  
> Things are very far from over!  
> 


	14. Chapter 14 - 72 Hours in Brightmoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapter 14s - all events are happening concurrently in the two places.  
> Let’s see how Glimmer’s plans have affected them.
> 
> (I would read the Brightmoon section first though).

People thought that Swift Wind didn’t know much about silence. He knew they saw him as loud and obnoxious, he may be an alicorn but he wasn’t oblivious. In fact, it would probably surprise them to know how much of his life away from them was spent in silence. His idealistic idea to free all of his brethren when he had first been transformed, had petered out after the war. The other horses were happy to follow him over the horizon, but a domestic horse cannot care for itself. Their needs were more than he could deal with. He had tried to talk to them, but his words had fallen on deaf ears, he was not truly one of them anymore. The horses had drifted away, back to the villages and towns that they had come from. Warm stables and plentiful grain were the luxuries of the simple life they required.

So, Swift Wind was too chatty because much of his world was silence. But he knew when to keep quiet. Adora’s call had been unexpected. She’d only sparingly used their bond during the worst of the war and less and less with the passage of years. His ears had pricked and he had been dashing through the air at once. Broad wing strokes eating up the miles to the Crimson Waste. The pain and self loathing he felt even from so far hastening his journey.

Hitting sand, wings sending up a plume of sand on the downstroke, he watched the others shielded their eyes. They all looked dour, broken. None more than Adora, though. Her eyes were dull, her posture slumped as she wordlessly, and gracelessly, clambered aboard him. Through the bond he could almost feel her scream her need to get away. So he got them away. Wings wide, beating hard they were airborne in a wave of sand, and gone.

Adora clung to his neck, burying her face in his mane. He could feel her shaking against him. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but he knew it was bad. As he flew faster and faster towards the Whispering Wood, he felt the coolness of drying moisture in his hair and knew she must be crying. He could ask what, but he didn’t think that he would get an answer. Instead, he redoubled his efforts. If Adora needed them to be lost, then there was no better place to get lost in than the woods.

Setting down in a small, tree shaded clearing, his wings hit the branches, causing brittle leaves to shower down around them. He expected Adora to climb down once his hooves touched the mossy floor. Instead, she held tighter to him, hands clutching convulsively in his mane. He stood, stock still, waiting. And waiting. When it became clear that she was going nowhere, Swift Wind lowered his body to the ground, folding his wings to shield his broken cargo.

It was morning before Adora pulled herself away from the comfort of the fur and feather cocoon. She had slept fitfully, lulled by the warmth of his body and the thrum of his heart. Her eyes were sore and gritty , red rimmed and swollen from hours of grief that she knew she had no right to feel. She had done it again. In trying to do the right thing she had got everything wrong. Catra’s words echoed around her head… ‘Why didn’t you ask?’ Why hadn’t she? Had she become so hardened that there was no longer any trust in her heart?

Slipping down the equine’s flank, her boots hit the ground with a dull thud. Swift Wind’s head swung slowly towards her, fixing her with large, concerned eyes. She had thought he was still sleeping, hoping to slip away unseen before he woke.

“You doing alright there, Adora?” His deep, melodious voice held none of its usual playfulness. 

She opened her mouth only to close it again. She could only shake her head, eyes darting to the dark depths of the forest. Swift Wind started to speak again, but Adora felt her blood rushing in her ears. Her heart was pounding and her skin prickled. His words were lost to her and she bolted into the woods. Running full tilt down a track too narrow for the horse to follow.

“Adora!” His shouts made her legs turn faster, stumbling over roots and fallen branches. Her vision was blurred but she pushed herself to move faster and faster.

“Adora!” 

“ADOOORAAA!” The alicorn’s voice was almost imperceptible now, as the forest closed around her. The Whispering Woods took care of its own and Adora belonged here. So she ran.  
Thirst was what kept her moving even when her legs became leaden and she could feel the blisters forming on her feet. She wasn’t sure how long she’d run or how far she had walked. When it wanted to be the Whispering Woods was a constantly shifting maze of dense trees and vines. It usually gave her an easier time but apparently it too had decided that she had crossed a line. 

Staggering tiredly over yet another exposed root, throat burning, she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in over twenty-four hours, she found herself spat out of the threes and into a clearing she knew well. She look up and up at the intimidating building that towered over her.

Her eyes look up at the stairs, her feet seeming to make a decision for her and taking her up them until she was standing, slumped, against the doorframe. Her eyes closed as she just let herself rest. She wasn’t sure how long she stood like that before her treacherous hand raised and rang the bell. She balled her first and drove it into the stood beside the door, feeling her knuckles split and pain shoot up her wrist. She hissed in pain, but did nothing to staunch the blood that began to lazily ran over her hand and drip to the floor.

It didn’t take long before she hears the sound of feet on marble. A big part of her wanted to turn tail and run again but she just couldn’t. Her body needed to stop. She knew she could turn into She-ra, but what if she didn’t come when she called? She hadn’t in the magicat ship. It was as though the primal power that dwelt inside her had judged her wanting. It was how she was judging herself.

The door opened, the heavy wood moving slowly on its hinges, revealing the smiling face of Lance. He peered out, obviously hoping to see one of his plethora of sons standing on his doorstep. His gaze land on the slumped and rumpled form of the young woman who was friends with his son and his smile fell as he took in the state of her. He reached out, calling her name, she turned vacant eyes up to him and started to tilt. Before her vision turned black, large hands grasped her arms and stopped her from falling face first to the floor.

Lance tamped down his shock, swinging the woman into his arms and quickly moving back inside. He kicked the door closed with his heel and moved through the cavernous vestibule and towards the study. George would be there, hunched over his drafting table and hard at work.

Using his shoulder to push open the study door, he winced behind his glasses as the wood banged against the wall. George’s head shot up at the sound, words of censure on his lips until he noticed the limp form cradled in his arms and rushed to his husband’s side. George reached out, freeing Lance from her weight and moving to place her softly on the chaise.

The taller man, now unencumbered, rushed to the kitchen to get supplies. Not sure what was wrong with the young woman he threw all manner of items onto a tray. He tucked a towel under his arm and bustled back. He saw that George had straightened Adora’s limbs and was, in the way of all parents, resting the back of his hand against her forehead checking for any sign of a fever. He looked up at the man he had married over two decades ago and smiled sadly as he stood up and moved away. He too Lance’s tray and placed it to one side before grabbing the blanket that was folded on the back of the couch and laid it over their guest. 

“Should we call someone?” Lance put his arm around the smaller man’s shoulders and rested his head against his temple.

“I think if she wanted to be somewhere else she would be. I say we settle her in one of the boys’ bedrooms and see what she has to say when she wakes up.” George’s eyes hadn’t left the prone woman as he spoke.

“Are you ok?” Lance punctuated his words with a kiss where their heads met.

“She looks like she’s been through something awful. I wish I knew what it was.” Even though it had been a long time since he had fought, George still remembered the toll it took on a person. Yet, he had never seen Adora look so worn even during the war.

“We can ask her tomorrow. If she’s up to it.” He squeezed gently. “We can tell her what we found about her book, maybe that will cheer her up.” The taller man moved away to pick up the tray as George stooped to pick up the woman who never stirred as he held her to his chest.

They pair took her up to Bow’s old room, it seemed only fitting to put her in her friend’s bed. It didn’t hurt that Bow’s room was the closest to the study, and though both men may be in good shape they were not in the first bloom of youth anymore. By the time Adora was set on the bed, George was sweating lightly and had to take a couple minutes to get his breath back. While he did, Lance gently removed her boots and socks, wincing as he saw the raw flesh on her soles. Moving up her form her managed to slip off her jacket and then took the small bowl of salt water he had brought from the kitchen and a cloth. As carefully as he would touch a baby bird that had fallen from its next, he bathed her feet and applied a salve before he pulled a sheet over her. George had regained his composure and drawn the curtains closed, shading the room.

Taking a final look at the unconscious form, they left her to sleep, a glass of water and wrapped sandwich beside her on the night stand. 

________________

Silence had settled over Brightmoon in the wake of the attack on Oasis. When the princesses had arrived back at the castle with their tales between their legs, Glimmer had tried to cajole them, to convince them to let her handle the queen. Netossa had glowered at her while Frosta had simply pushed her out of the way roughly, much to the shock of the guards, and stormed down the hallway to the queen’s study. 

Queen Angella and King Micah had been taking tea. Gently flirting and laughing. After Micah had been returned from Beast Island they had needed to get to know each other all over again. In the intervening years they had both changed so much, though at the core they remained the rebellious couple who had fallen in love against the advice of everyone around them. But Micah had been alone for almost fifteen years, the isolation having driven him just a little mad. His temper was shorter and his ability to cope with being around large groups was next to none. It had been difficult for him to get used to being part of a society again, even if it was beside his beautiful wife. That she had changed too had been a lot to get used to.

Angella had looked the same, down to each wave of her hair and arch of her eyebrow. He had aged, putting on muscle and gaining grey in his hair, but she still thought he was the most handsome man that she had ever seen. Micah had felt intimidated, wondering how could she love him again knowing how fragile and transitory his life was compared to her own. Angella, on the other hand, had tried to smother him with too much love and too many expectations too soon and he had almost hit her, once. That had made him retreat like a wounded animal and run away to hide. She had feared he had disappeared again and search ceaselessly for him. It was these kinds of misunderstandings that had led them to Mysticore.

Castaspella had been all too happy to help them find a counsellor who they had religiously seen for almost five years until they had both slotted back together like the perfect puzzle pieces they are. But the time that they had made for each other, they still kept as a standing date. Just for them, tucked away privately for a few hours where they could be silly or soft. Micah felt almost like the young man he had been when he saw the angelic being for the first time, and knew that he would do anything if only he could be hers. It didn’t hurt that Angella continued to look at him as though he hung the moons.

Reconnecting to his daughter had been far more difficult. When he had left, she had been a pudgy little toddler stumbling around behind him and asking to be picked up and thrown in the air. She had been sweet and easy, a tiny version of the woman he loved beyond measure. The young woman he had come back to had been hard to handle. She seemed light and airy, but there was an iron core to the girl that was dangerous. He wasn’t sure that anyone else in Brightmoon, or the Alliance could see it. They were all so close, codependently so if you asked him, but even now he still felt as though he wasn’t allowed an opinion on these young people that he had missed growing up. Yet, sometimes when he looked at her, he saw something in her eyes that made him afraid. He had seen it before, in the eyes of the woman that haunted the halls of the castle that he refused to enter, eyes now concealed behind a mask. It made him very worried about his progeny. 

When the door banged open violently on its hinges, they were both taken aback. Micah leapt to his feet, already standing combat ready while Angella began to pull her magic from the Moonstone. It took a moment to realise that the tall figure in the doorway was Frosta and both began to relax. Not completely though, Frosta’s expression was grave and she was almost vibrating with agitation, hands balled into fists at her sides. From the open door they could hear something of a commotion coming towards them. Frosta shot an irritated glance over her shoulder before firmly shutting the door on the noise and walking purposefully to where the royal pair were now sitting.

“You need to know that we have done something very stupid that could damn us all.” Frosta’s words were clipped and direct as always. They lacked clarity though.

“What could you have done?” Micah was incredulous.

“Who is we?” The two elders spoke at once and Micah took his wife’s hand.

“All of the princesses. Adora, Mermista and Perfuma came back from Oasis early.”

“We haven’t seen them.” Angella was starting to sit up straighter.

“They returned early and told us that they had seen Hordak.” Angella and Micah both tensed at the name. “They told Glimmer over the tracker and she gathered us. We met in the garden. Glimmer told us all we should go and find answers before we came to you and we did. Like a bunch of idiots!” Her voice rose in pitch. “It was like old times, the danger and excitement. Glimmer was so passionate, just like she used to be and we… we just went along with it. Only Perfuma said no.”

“What did you do?” Angella was standing now, towering over the other woman who cowered a little under the Queen’s glare.

“Glimmer had a plan. We were to go and find weapons on the magicat ship, come back with evidence for you and then attack.” To her own ears now it seemed mad, irrational. The only outcome the outcome that had happened. Frosta hated that she turned back into a pre-teen when she was around Glimmer. “We broke in with Adora’s shield key…” Her voice tapered off as Angella’s glare intensified.

The angel was walking passed her now, towards the door and throwing open with another bang. She marched down the hall, legs eating up the distance in long strides until she was stood n front of her daughter who had gone very still. Her angry words as she tried to get to the study only to be retrained by the women around them, all of whom stepped back looking shame faced. Angella peripherally noticed that Adora was missing but her attention was too focused on Glimmer to think too much about it. 

“Mom I…”

“Don’t you dare ‘mom’ me!” Without taking her eyes off of her daughter she raised her voice. “Guards! Escort Princess Glimmer to my thrown room. Clear the room of anyone else and wait for me.”

The guards looked between each other, not knowing what was going on, but when the queen looked towards them with a frown they sparing into action and flanked the pink haired princess, one grasping the top of her arms and escorting her gently along the way but ensuring she could not escape into thin air without taking one of them along with her. Angella’s ire was now focused on the other women who were still standing in the hall.

“All of you have put Etheria’s progress back a decade. If war comes from this then it will be on all your heads! I thought you all knew better than this. But clearly you need a reminder.” She walked closer to them and hissed her next words. “I am the queen! You bring concerns to me and we work on plans as a team. Glimmer is NOT the queen.” She paused, a murmur of assent coming from the small group. “Go back to your kingdoms. You will not return until you are given permission.” She turned her back on them and moved quickly towards her thrown room, they were summarily dismissed.

Frosta rejoined them. There were no words. What could they say in the face of the truth. Their little escapade could have plunged them back into war.

_______________

Eyes fluttering open, Adora felt disorientated. She was laying on something soft, a comforting scent surrounding her. She moved her hands and a sheet fell away. Blinking owlishly, pieces fell into place as she realised that she was in a bed; in a bedroom. She was certain that it was not her room in Brightmoon, the bed was too soft and the sheets smelled all wrong. Good, but not her own. The room was dark, but a sliver of light glinted at the join where the curtains met. Slowly, she pushed herself up to a sitting position and cast her gaze around the room.

Even in the gloomy room, she could make out a desk with a battered chair down up to it, a tall cupboard next to it with a mirror stretching along both doors, reflecting her dishevelled image back to her. Like watching a ghost, she saw her hand reach up and ruffle her bedhead, settling the short strands into some semblance of order. She drew her knees up to her chest, wincing as her feet dragged along the cool sheets, wrapping her arms around them and resting her forehead there. Hiding her from the reflection. Trying hard to hide from herself. 

Turning her head so that now it was her check pressed against her knees, she noticed the glass on the nightstand and remembered just how thirsty she was. It was a tall glass, maybe a pint, and she knew better than to slam the whole thing down at once, that was a sure way to bring it all back again. She uncurled and sat on the edge of the bed, before bringing the glass to her lips and sipping gingerly. She almost started to cry again when she saw the neatly wrapped sandwich. It was an act of care that she wasn’t certain she deserved. It didn’t stop her from picking it up and taking a bite, almost as hungry as she was thirsty. It was delicious and gone faster than it should have been. Her stomach groaned and turned, but it stayed down. 

Refuelled, she felt strong enough to stand and limp over to the desk. She ran her hands over the various books and pencils that were scattered across it, as though the owner had just stepped out and would be back any moment. Her eyes drifted up to the cork-board, flicking away when she saw picture upon picture of the Best Friend Squad. Her stomach almost rebelled as she saw. Glimmer’s image. 

Needing to get out, she picked up the empty plate and glass and walked barefoot out of Bow’s room and towards the kitchen. She had been here many times over the years. It wasn’t a home away from home, but she knew it well enough to navigate her way around. The crockery clinked as it was set on the counter and she thought about washing them up but was distracted by the sound of three voices coming from across the hall. Like she was being called by a siren song, she walked over to the study and knocked softly on the door. It opened almost at once and George reached out and took her hand, smiling as he led her into the room and settled her in an armchair. She saw that Lance was holding a tracker pad and her heart sank.

“Bow would like to say hello, would you be up to that?” Lance was so gentle as he spoke that Adora wondered how bad she must look to other people.

“I…” her voice cracked and she coughed a little, George rushed to a pitcher and poured her some amber liquid which she took gratefully, surprised as she tasted of the iced tea on her tongue. “I can talk to Bow.” After all he hadn’t been there.

Lance handed over the tracker pad and both older men walked to the other side of the room, pointedly not paying attention to what was being said but not wanting to leave the fragile seeming woman alone. Adora watched them walk away, both men were greyer than they had been when she first met them, and maybe a little less solid but they were still people you could rely on. Bow was lucky to have parents like them. He was lucky to have parents, period. That thought brought her dangerously close to thinking about what Catra had said to the assembled crowd about the bodies of dead parents that she had stormed into and her hand came up to involuntarily rub the cheek that had been slapped.

Looking down shamefacedly she was met with Bow’s understanding brown eyes as he studied her from the pad in silence, waiting for her to speak. She met his eyes, words caught in her throat, and saw how tired he looked. His skin looked ashen and there were obvious bags under his bloodshot eyes. Eyes that usually danced with affection seemed dulled.

“Hi Bow.” Her voice was small but carried through the device in her lap.

“How are you doing, Adora? We were all worried about where you disappeared to.” His tone was gentle and she loved him just a little more.

“How did you find me?” She knew but there was no harm in conforming it.

“My dads called me. They were worried about you, they weren’t prying.” Bow raised his hands, to show his transparency.

“I know, they’re good men, like you.” Her eyes dropped from the screen to her lap again, she didn’t think she could look him in the eyes. “Do you know what happened?” It was almost a whisper.

“Yes.” A deep sigh punctuated his words. “I’m not going to say I understand what you all did. It was reckless and dangerous…I don’t want to go back to fighting for my life, Adora.”

Blue eyes shot up to the screen, wide and horrified. Is that what he thought? That she had gone with Glimmer because she wanted to start a new war? To give her life meaning? Though from his perspective, she supposed it looked exactly like that. She had be searching for meaning and then this.

“I don’t either Bow.” Her voice was choked.

“Then why?” 

“I don’t understand what you mean.” She knew her voice was started to sound panicked, she noted Lance and George take a step towards her but stop themselves as they heard Bow’s voice. 

“Why wouldn’t you go to the council, ask them about Hordak? You could have spoken to Scorpia. Anything. But you chose to come back to Brightmoon and tell Glimmer! You know she’s been off lately.” He looked guilty. “Who am I kidding, she hasn’t been right for a while and I just let it happen. Why didn’t you go to Queen Angella?” 

Why hadn’t they? They always had access to the royal couple, Adora lived in their home and had a good relationship with them. Why had Glimmer’s argument that they should gather information before going to the monarch seemed like a good idea? She wracked her brain but came up empty. It wasn’t like the other’s had gone against her either. Adora should have known better. Chain of command had been ground into her as a child, and the chain of command began and ended with the Queen. Years of fighting under Glimmer’s instruction were hard to ignore though.

So hard to ignore that she had defied protocol. 

“I don’t know.” She really didn’t. “What’s happening there?” It had already been close to forty-eight hours since they were ejected from Oasis and they had been given a ticking clock.

“The others had all be sent back to their kingdoms. Glimmer is under house arrest. Queen Angella has confined her to our quarters with twenty-four hour guard. It was King Micah’s idea. She’s been in with advisors, working on some sort of treaty to extend to Oasis to avoid an escalation.” Bow was usually one of the Queen’s advisors, but it sounded like he was being kept out of the loop.

“Aren’t you a part of those conversations?” 

“I am being barred from the meetings. I am too close to Glimmer and they are trying to avoid a conflict of interest, as much as they can given that she is the queen’s daughter.” A hard edge crept into his voice as he spoke. Bow was a trustworthy man and to be cast aside for free of betrayal grated on him.

“I am so sorry, Bow.”

“I know.” He didn’t say it wasn’t her fault or make any excuses for her. “I think you better stay there for now, let Queen Angella focus on the task at hand. I’ll keep in touch.” He smiled sadly and the screen went black.

Adora leant forward, tracker clasped in her hands, pointing towards the floor. She closed her eyes and tried to keep her breathing under control, head bowed over her knees as she began to rock gently in her seat. She wasn’t aware of the motion until a large hand landed softly on her shoulder, stilling her. She didn’t look up, but allowed her body to fall sideways, until her head was resting against his hip, taking comfort in the movement of his hand as it moved to stroke her hair. She wondered how many times her friend had taken comfort from such a motion.

With his other hand Lance took the tracker from her limp hands and passed it over to George. They had both heard the conversation, whether they were trying to eves drop or not. Bow had already filled them in on the situation. George had been horrified, but pleased that his son had been left out of it. He had hate that Bow had become involved in the last war but respected his choices. It didn’t meant that he wanted to watch it happen again. He moved to his desk, setting down the tracker and picking up a pile of books and papers. He caught Lance’s eye and saw his husband smile that charming grim of his as he crouched to say something to Adora.

Not long after they were arranged around the huge kitchen table, its rough hewn surface pitted with the marks of a lifetime together and a bakers dozen of boys. There were holes and gauges, pictures scattered here and there in anything ranging from pencil to paint. They had never had the heart to wipe them off, and once all the boys had been grown, in a fit of nostalgia, Lance had varnished them into the table, preserving the history of the object in its grain. They were historians after all and every object held value. They each had a cup of tea in front of them and a slice of cake, though none of them had touched either yet. Instead, they were all focused on the array of documents laid out. There weren’t many, but what was there was fascinating.

Moving to another space had helped to shake Adora out of her funk a little as had the promise of some answers. She was hoping that it would help her understand why Glimmer, and she, were so suspicious of the magicats. It would vindicate them if it could prove some sort of deception. But, in vindicating them it would indict Catra and her newfound kin. 

“So,” George was the one to get the ball rolling, taking a sip of his tea and placing the cup back onto the delicate saucer with a clink. “We found some more mentions of the magicat story that was in your book. What was interesting, was that there was no evidence to corroborate any of the stories. It would seem that this book you brought to us,” he tapped the battered cover. “Rather than being a factual tome, is actual the detail of a myth.” Adora’s shoulders deflated a little. Seeing this Lance jumped in.

“Once we knew that these were just stories, the question became where did they come from. We obviously know that magicat’s are an extraterrestrial species. We also know, from what you were told in Oasis, that their ship crashed and they remained in suspended animation until the Horde.”

“That’s definitely true, we saw the bodies when we…” Her voice was quiet as she admitted what she had seen.

“If your Catra,” Adora couldn’t hide a wince at the use of the other woman’s name, “was the first of her kind to walk Etheria then how did these people draw these.” Lance opened her book to reveal the picture of the kitten. He and George then opened two other book and unrolled a scroll of parchment. 

Adora studied the images. She knew the one from the book she had found in her drawer, it was the other that caught her eye. They were not all of equal quality, a couple were laughably cartoonish, giving the cat people disproportionally large ears and the faces of actual cats. One or two were of a similar quality to the first. On one, she noticed that there appeared to be annotations but before she could pull it towards her, George was holding something out to her.

“As we read around the myth of the magicats, something became very clear,” he cleared his throat and began to read.

…“From the sky rained blue flame. Faster and faster it came, filling the sky with its inferno. A second sun falling from the sky, turning the sky black in its wake. A shard of fire split and flew along the horizon, the last shooting star in the sky. The fire blazed, then went out. Every star gone from the sky and the true sun had abandoned the world. Two moons now looked upon us and all that had been known was lost…”

“Whatever happened, it coincided with Etheria being pulled into Despondos. It’s no wonder it became attached to a myth. The stars went out and there was fire in the sky.” He turned the book towards her, showing a picture of a fireball all painted in shades of blue.

“Exploring the timeline, and using the data you gained from the First Ones ship, it seems clear that whatever technology was used to pull Etheria from one dimension to another caught the Halfmoon and damaged it, sending it barrelling towards Etheria. Why that led to a crash we can’t say.”

“But,” Lance continued, “what we have been able to deduce is that, although the larger ship crashed into the desert, in a hostile uninhabited area, hence why nobody was aware of it, the ‘shooting star’ landed in a populated area.” 

He pulled over a large rolled sheet of paper and unfurled it to show a detailed map of Etheria as it would have been a thousand years ago. Adora noted that the area that would be the Waste, was heavily border in red and clearly held sigils which showed it was to be avoided. What her eyes were drawn to though, was the image of a pale blue sarcophagus. She reached out and carefully traced her finger over it. Her mind just couldn’t place where it was. George reached up and overlaid a translucent map of modern Etheria, showing that the ‘shooting star’ had crashed on the edge of the Whispering Woods, in the area that had been the no-mans land between it and the Fright Zone. 

“So what does that tell us?” Her curiosity had temporarily pushed her sadness to the side.

“What it tells us is that the people in the area went and found the ‘shooting star’ and what they found was obviously not that.” George was now holding up another, more batter book. He opened it to a page with a drawing of what looked like a large, smooth peach pit. On the next page was the same object, this time showing the interior which contained five people. 

Adora reached out and reverently took the book from him with trembling hands and looked more closely at the second image. All of the figures were drawn with their eyes closed, but none of them were in pods of any kind. She turned to the next page and began to read.

…”The star was glowing red with heat when we found it. It had been two days since the stars went out and we had finally found one of the things that had fallen from the sky. It was a strange sight, etched all over with intricately lined patterns but so smooth to the touch, once it had cooled, that it felt like silk. 

When we tapped on the outside, there was a hollow echo that came back and we were shocked to think that it was not a solid object. Curiosity is a seductive mistress, and we came back the next day with cutters and hammers of all types. It took hours and a lot of effort but finally we were through and prising open a chunk.

That was when we found them.

They were curled inside the hollow metal shell, huddled together. Some of us cried. It looked like a family balled up inside. Two adults and three small children. They were all covered in fur, big ears and tails on each one. They looked like nothing we had ever seen. Like cats. All of them were dead.

We pulled them out of the hollow and laid them in on the moss. They did not look peaceful in death. Their faces were etched with fear, even the smallest child (who could have been no older than my own three year old son) had their faced scrunched up apprehensively. We would sketch pictures of them later before we gave them a decent burial in the place that they had landed.

Others had reached inside the now empty chamber. It was a small space, hardly big enough for the small group that we had pulled out. Everything inside had obviously been thrown around. There were all manner of glass looking sheets on one wall. We weren’t sure what their purpose were. What we did fine was several small books, some rations and what were obviously personal items to the family. There were three stuffed animals of a sort we had never seen before.

The family was buried with solemnity from those of us who had found them. We dragged the object back to town and broke it up. The metal was melted and we were able to salvage many precious metals from the wreckage. The books were taken to our library. The librarian hopes that they will be able to decipher some of the peculiar writing…”

“So they really did crash land a thousand years ago.” Her mind was processing what she had just read.

“It seems so. That was written by a farmer. We think that your book comes from the attempt at translation from the very librarian referenced here and it is likely that the images are from the original book found with the bodies.” George tapped the familiar picture of a child.

“The smaller vessel must have been an escape pod. They must have been inside in case of a problem, to ensure that some of the magicats would survive.” Adora’s words sounded more like she was talking to herself.

“If they deployed it too late it wouldn’t have been able to get away and they faced the same fate as all of their people.” 

“Can I take these to my room?” 

“We thought you might also want to take a look at these,” Lance brought up a box and opened it reverently, showing the young woman the fragments of a book. It had clearly been cut and torn many times. “We think these are fragments of the books they found. They were among many other wax sealed boxes we found at a dig twenty years ago or so.”

“Be gentle with them, try not to handle them too much, they’re fragile.” George smiled encouraging and Lance proffered the box.

________________

Glimmer sat on the floor surrounded by the scattered and shattered remnants of the things that had been on her desk. She had thrown them from her desk in a rage. How dare her mother confine her to her room like she was still a child being grounded! Not even Bow was allowed to come in unless he was bringing her meals. Ever since her mother had her frog marched to the thrown room she had been seething. Could nobody see how convenient it all was? The body’s acted as a perfect smoke screen for anything else. They still didn’t have answers about Hordak but were going to go, tail between their legs to those animals and beg forgiveness for her trespass! When she had been put under house arrest she had laughed in her mothers face which had just made the older woman purse her lips and had her shown to her room.

Glimmer’s room had been sealed with magic from the outside. Guards posted on her balcony and at her door. The seal was warded against her magic. She had found that out the hard way as she had attempted to transport from her bathroom to her sideboard. Rather than disappearing in a cloud of sparkles, she had felt electricity across her skin that pricked like a thousand bee stings. She hadn’t tried again. The ward had her father’s signature all over it and she was nowhere close to the caster that he was. 

Her confinement was only thirty-six hours old and already she felt stir crazy. After she had trashed the room in a storm of temper, she had attempted to get out. That had been fruitless. Everything was locked and the magic impediment was not worth trying again, the pain had been too intense. She had screamed and shouted, raging at the guards, her mother, Catra. Catra most of all. That Horde scum was the reason for all of this.

And then there was Adora. That traitor had run away rather than facing the music alongside her. She was the one who had brought the news of Hordak. She was the one who had let them inside the shield and driven them to the crater. Where was her house arrest? Where were the repercussions for her? She had fled like a coward on Swift Wind and from what little gossip she could get from Bow had gone to hideout at his fathers’ library. 

She seethed for a day and a night and another day. Then night came and she was still sitting among the ruins of torn photographs and shattered ornaments. Once all these mementos held so much meaning to her that she treasured them like priceless artefacts, now they were simple truffles. Useless and pointless as her confinement.

That was how Shadow Weaver found her, sat amongst the rubble of her past, simmering with impotent rage. It made the older woman smile beneath her mask as she manifested into the room in a black cloud of shadow-smoke. At first Glimmer didn’t notice her. As it should be, the witch melted into the shadows and slipped the mask from her face and tucked it within her robes. Then she glided out of the darkness in a rustle of robes and Glimmer looked up at her, a smile blooming out of the scowl on her face as she saw her confidant.

“Glimmer, my dear girl, I heard what happened.” She bent her tall frame and cupped the younger woman’s cheek. “Are you all right?”

“I’m angry. I’m angry and frustrated with my mother’s lack of understanding. Why are we the only people who can see that this is all just a trap?” Glimmer got to her feet and joined the other woman witting on her bed. They both sat sideways so that they could make eye contact. Shadow Weaver rested a gentle hand on her forearm.

“Sometimes we have to take charge for other people’s own good, Glimmer. They can’t always tell what’s best for them. The worst the medicine the better it is for you, after all.” As she spoke she removed a metal flask from the folds of her robe and proffered the vessel to the woman opposite.

Glimmer reached for the flask and took a long drink of the liquor that burned a little as it travelled down her throat. She didn’t often drink with the old witch, or anyone, she always wanted to be in control of her actions. But in times of high stress, there was nothing wrong with a shot or two. As she took another pull, Shadow Weaver’s smile grew as she watched pink eyes turn red and stay that way for a beat or two. Taking back the flask, she whisked it away without taking her own drink.

“Maybe I am wrong? What if there was nothing there and I have started something, as mother says?” Her head started to hang, but the hand on her arm squeezed and she looked back up.

“Never doubt the courage of your convictions, Glimmer. A good leader sticks to their guns.” Self doubt in her protege was the last thing she needed. 

“Tell me, did you discover anything of use?” 

“The story they told about the dead was true…”. Glimmer’s pink eyes fixed on her. “Did you have them all killed?”

“Goodness no, it was all Hordak’s orders. I never knew anything about it until they brought that mongrel back with them. Of course they would have a different story, Hordak will have twisted it to suit himself.” She had been afraid this would come up but it was easy to deflect. She had learnt a long time ago that people believe what you want them to believe.

“I knew it! I knew it as soon as they said he was there!” Her face cleared, then clouded again as she thought of something. “Magic didn’t work there. I don’t know if it was the room, although I had been able to use magic in the rest of the ship, or the magicat’s themselves. I shot bombs at Catra and they just seemed to absorb into her skin. It had no affect. It was the same for all of us. Even Adora couldn’t transform once she was surrounded by them.”

That was curious indeed. Shadow Weaver had used magic to twist and turn the young magicat inside out all her life. Magic had always worked on her just fine. Perhaps it was the princess magic, or the chamber itself. If only she had one of them to study at length, she had never really bothered with the thorn in her side, keeping her under control had been hard enough.

“That is very interesting indeed. Maybe there is some mystical reason for their name after all, maybe magicats have powers that we did not suspect. I am sure we will have time to find out very soon, your mother is a bleeding heart like all the others. Mark my words, she will invite a delegation here.” Already a dark plan was forming in her mind.

“How does that help us?”

“Oh Glimmer, you will need to show them and your mother how sorry you are and make your peace. And then we will be able to study them and find their weaknesses.”

_________________

On the third day after a night spent tirelessly looking over the history of a woman she wasn’t sure would ever speak to her again, Adora’s inherent need to always be ‘doing’ took over and she found herself pulling on her boots after a delicious breakfast with George and Lance, and then heading out for a walk. She promised them that she wouldn’t be gone more than a few hours and made her way into the woods.

Today, the dense trees seemed far more inviting. Friendly as they always were to her, whether because they liked Adora or obeyed She-ra, she didn’t know, but she was glad of it. She tried to enjoy the flowers and the smell of sap and the greenness around her. Her mind was still whirling from the information she had found. She hoped that maybe she could help make amends with it. It there was any possibility of a way back from what she had done. Starting to slip back into melancholy, she saw Catra’s anger at Glimmer, her disappointment with her and Lonnie’s sadness. It made her stomach churn. Getting lost in her head, she walked straight into an obstacle and went sprawling into the leaf litter.

Groaning, spitting out a mouthful of dirt, she rolled onto her back and yelped when two giant eyes appeared right over her own. Reacting on instinct, she began to scrabble backwards, heart pounding. It was the cackle that stopped her.

“Mara dear, what are you doing down there? Come, come, you said you would help me clean my cottage today.” Even after all these years, Razz still called her Mara from time-to-time. It happened less now than it had, time seemed to have settled down around the old woman.

“Sorry Razz.” Adora was on her feet now, dusting off her pants. “Lead the way.”

Following the small scarlet figure through the woods, the blond hoped that she would be able to make her way back to the library. She had noticed over the years that the woods seemed to bend for Razz, as though she were one of its roots and it needed to make her path as easy as it could. Her cottage was never far, no matter where you were. The ancient lady looked exactly as she had when Adora first saw her as a teen, perhaps she always would. Perhaps Razz was a spirit of the woods and would outlast them all.

Once inside the cottage, Razz pushed her into one of the armchairs that faced the fire and set about bustling around to make her a hot drink. It was comforting. Sometimes Adora wondered if this is what it would be like to have a grandmother. She pottered, she doted, she occasionally hit you with a broomstick and made you copious amounts of pie. As though thinking of it made it so, a slice of berry pie was shoved under her nose before Razz sank into her own chair opposite and stared at her with her hugely magnified eyes.

“You are troubled, Adora. Tell Razz what troubles you?” It was hard not to become a little hypnotised by those eyes and the cadence of her voice. Adora found herself telling Razz everything.

Out of words, she set to work eating her pie. Silence settled around the two of them until there were nothing but crumbs on her plate. She set it down on the floor beside her. When she sat back up Razz leant forward and rested a bony hand on her knee. 

“You fear that you have cut down the new growth in the garden and that it will never grow back.” She was used to riddles now and waited. “The hardiest weeds can be cut, poisoned or burned and grow back through even the smallest crack in the darkest corner. Wild and savage and beautiful in a way that is not perfect, but is perfect all the same.” She tapped the knee under her hand. “Sometimes the gardener needs to ask the wildflower, that they called a weed, for forgiveness and cultivate it anew.”

Adora mulled over those words. Could she really ask for a second, or would it be third, chance to prove that she would not hurt her former friends? It seemed too cruel to even consider. The two of them picked berries and Adora carried a full bucket back to the cottage for the old woman. As she began to make a crust, Adora prepared to leave when a question popped onto her lips.

“Razz, do you remember a big, blue fireball falling from the sky when Etheria was pulled into Despondos?”

“Visitors waiting to say hello.”

“They’ve said hello now, Razz. The girl I told you about, Catra, she was one of them.” 

“Then all the more reason to cultivate them after they have been seeded in the ground.”

__________________

Angella sat behind the large monitor, looking into its dead black depths and seeing her own solemn face reflected back at her. She had not intended to take the full three days that they had been given to open communication with Oasis, but planning a satisfactory strategy had been difficult. Glimmer was remorseless and her actions unforgivable. She had not grown up to be the woman that Angella thought she would. In the war she had shown so push purpose and honour but now it was like all she wanted is a return to the ‘good old days’ of the war where she felt needed.  
When Glimmer had described the confrontation in the chamber full of the dead, there was no emotion in her voice. Just cold facts and bile about the former Horde second in command. It had chilled her that her child could be so cold about so much death. When Angella had first heard abut the Horde’s attempted genocide on that ship, after their first contact with the new civilisation, she had felt sickened that she had not known and that so many innocent people had died and she had never even met one of the magicat’s, not even Catra, face-to-face. When had Glimmer lost her humanity?

The other princesses, when contacted and interrogated over the trackers, had all been clearly affected by what they had seen in that room. They had detailed the smashed pods and the desiccated bodies, the smaller room with baby sized units and how Catra had come in roaring like an avenging demon. None of them had a justification for their actions. Adora had still not returned, but Bow had spoken with her and assured the queen that she was more devastated than anyone and safely in the hands of his fathers. Angella would need to have a very serious conversation with the woman who wielded such immense power with apparently such poor judgement, but she had other matters to focus on for now.

It had hurt her heart to ban Bow from the talks. She was aware that he was not sharing her daughter’s room during her house arrest, he couldn’t, but he still visited her daily. He was a great member of her council and a good politician. It had surprised them all when he had taken to it so well but it had been gratifying to know that her daughter would eventually have a solid sounding board by her side when Angella stepped down as queen, though now she didn’t know if she ever would. She knew Bow understood her reasons, but also knew that he felt slighted at his ejection. Her pans needed to work so that everything could get back on an even keel and they could all move forward.

Micah had wanted to be with her when she made the call. Wanted to stand by her shoulder and show his support. She loved him all the more for it but had said no. it was important to show that she was willing to be alone to make contact, to look the representatives of Oasis in the eyes and ask for forgiveness and the start of a journey to a lasting peace. There were still questions, they were not about to allow themselves to be steam roller were Glimmer’s suspicions not without grounds, but there were more diplomatic ways to do it and Angella was very adept at diplomacy.

Taking a deep breath to ground herself, she reached forward a long fingered hand and initiated contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now let's see how things played out in Oasis...


	15. Chapter 14 - 72 Hours in Oasis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapter 14s - all events are happening concurrently in the two places.  
> Let’s see how Glimmer’s plans have affected them.
> 
> (I would read the Brightmoon section first though).

Angry voices flowed through the room, low but constant. Every magicat over the age of sixteen sat, packed into the meeting room. It was hot and the anxiety in the room was palpable. Only a few hours had passed since they were all filling the crater. Blue and yellow eyes studied the throng, flitting from one form to another. She knew them all. Knew their names, their sorrows and their joys. Tace had shown her who they were and it had been her duty to understand them. No, not a duty, a pleasure. To understand them, was to understand herself.

Now was not the time for rashness or vengeance. If they stooped to that then they would show the Alliance that they had been right. She knew that they would have to honour their forebears, but vengeance would just get them killed. Sh let them vent a little longer before she let out a defining roar that broke over all the other noise in the room and left silence in its wake. All eyes were on her now on the small raised platform at the front of the council chamber. Usually this place represented all of Oasis, but today it was just for magicats.

“I know that you are all angry. I am angry. Our land has been violated, our dead have even desecrated and our trust has been broken. All of Oasis has suffered in this but none more than us.” There were shouts of agreement from the crowd. 

“So what are you going to do about it?” The words were angry, darling out of the male near the back as he glared at her.

“We are going to force Brightmoon to punish those who attacked us and make them ensure peace.” She knew that they would hate it. They wanted blood, not paper.

Shouts filled the room now, louder and more angry. It was hard to make out the words clearly but she knew that many of them were cursing her and her attachment to the Alliance, messy as it was. She let it go on, knowing from bitter experience that it would soon wear itself out and then angry silence would fill the room once more. It took longer than expected but soo they were all watching her again.

“I know you want to go to Brightmoon and show them what they did to us.” Shouts of ‘yeah’ and raised fists greeted her words. “You want to bare your fangs and unsheathe your claws and tear at the people who have hurt us.” More whoops. “You want them to pay for all the wrongs that have been done to our people.” She had to stop as the cheering reached a crescendo. 

She was watching them intently as the commotion continued. She saw that it was a small minority of loud and angry young males, all around twenty, who were leading the shouts for violence. Many of the magicat’s just looked sad and sick. It was how she felt.

“But you don’t want that!” Her voice rose above them and then the ‘boos’ that she had anticipated came. She raised her voice over them too, until they were silenced. “You don’t want a war. You are not warriors, or soldiers. It would kill your spirit and break your body.”

“We’re fought war!” Came from one side.

“What do you know?” A scream from elsewhere.

“Outsider!” It was an accusation that had been levelled at her more than once when she had been recognised as the chief of them all. Her roar had shown that she was without question, the alpha of their group. It didn’t mean that they all liked it.

“Then I am an outsider. I am also the only soldier in this room!” Her shout was sharp and the heckles stopped. “Our planet was attacked, and we ran to survive. I have seen the records. When the ships left the enemy wasn’t even at the gate. You were all as much children as I was. We fled to survive and we have survived, but that fear you and your parents knew? That is NOTHING compared to the terror you feel everyday on the battlefield!” Her gaze was steely as she moved it around the room to meet as many eyes as she could. It was a lie, of course, she had never felt terror on the battlefield, she’d been all too ready to die by then. But they didn’t need to hear that.

“War is like an animal you brought home to feed one day and keeps coming back and demanding more and more of your food until you are starving and it is fat and curled up by your fire. It’s not one and done. It lasts for years, kills your body and your spirit. It breaks you and makes you into a monster!” There was passion in her words, no need for equivocation here.

“So you’re a monster, Chief.” This time the call wasn’t a hackle, it was filled with disbelief.

“I am the biggest monster of them all, Midrall. I have done unspeakable things and had them done to me. I was pulled out of my pod and brought to a place where I was a replacement for a dead soldier. I was raised in battle simulations eating grey slabs of engineered algae. I was taught that weakness was something to be beaten for. That individuality was another reason to beat me. I was scorched in the fire of war, tempered on the anvil of fists and switches. I am what happens when wars go on for generations.” She noticed the males who had been so loud were now all looking chastened.

“You want your children to live in peace, you don’t want them ever to be afraid. I don’t want Yarsha to know fear, or any child in this place. All those children we brought from the Horde, those small boys and girls were already soldiers - just grist to the mill. They still scream in the night. The orphanage sometimes rings with their cries.”

She let that sit with them for a few moments, noting tears on some faces.

“Trust that I want what is best for us and all of Oasis. Don’t let your hearts be darkened by hate and violence. Living well is the best revenge. We are good, and honest and that is the truth of us. We will make a lasting peace and get our justice the right way. If the time comes that we go to Brightmoon, some of you will be by my side as envoys.” It was time to let them go, she hoped her words had broken through.

“Go and be with each other. Feel sad, feel angry but don’t feel hate.”

The room cleared quickly until Catra was left with only one other magicat. Kesh came and sat beside her at the edge of the stage. She wasn’t her sister, didn’t really know what her gentle sister had seen in the rough and ready soldier, but she loved her because Tace had loved her. 

“You did good, Chief. Tace would be proud.” She saw Catra’s shoulders finally relax at the words and knew her sister would be proud of her too.

_________________

Knocking on Catra’s bedroom door took her by surprise as she read to the little girl dozing in her lap. No matter what chaos was going on around them, Yarsha loved to be read to, as she curled up in somebody’s lap. She was always listening, could always tell you abou the story she had head, but her eyes would be closed and her little body completely relaxed. Catra enjoyed these times. Nobody had ever read to the Horde children. Nothing outside of military strategy in dingy classrooms. She was discovering the magic of children’s stories. Right along with her kitten. She would not let the princesses ruin things for her and her child.

Rhythmically running her hands through the girls hair until she began to purr as she made the transition from dozing to sleeping, Catra called out for the person outside to come in. It was unusual for anyone in the orphanage to knock, they were all family here and would burst in if they wanted something. It wasn’t her favourite aspect of living here, she would rather lock her door and have nobody else in their space, but it was another thing that she had learned from Tace, that being open to people was sometimes as literal as allow people to come in.

The door opened slowly, revealing the tall pallid form of Hordak. He stood rigidly in the opening, hesitating to cross step threshold. Meeting his red eyes, she indicated that he should stay put, as she moved to put the sleeping girl in the centre of the large bed and covered her with a light blanket. Pressing a kiss to a small velvet ear, she walked to her visitor and ushered him back into the corridor before gently closing the door. Hordak opened his mouth to speak, but she shook hers, and he remained silent. Passing Scorpia’s room she pushed open the door, happy to see that even under the circumstances it was unlocked today.

She poked her head trough the small gap and saw Scorpia curled up on the bed with a picture cradled gently between her claws that she looked at forlornly, not even looking up at Catra’s intrusion. She was loath to interrupt her friend, goodness knows they all needed to grieve and wallow in their own ways, but she thought maybe she could offer something of a distraction to her melancholy friend. 

“Hey, Scorp.” She kept her voice soothing as she would if she were talking to Yarsha after a nightmare. The white haired woman slowly brought her gaze around to meet hers. “Any chance you could go sit in with fuzzy-butt? She’s napping and I need to go have a conversation with Hordak.” 

Scorpia was on her feet, gently placing the picture face down on her nightstand, before Catra had even finished. She made her was to the door, which Catra held wider for her, and looked at the big man, bigger even than herself, who in that moment seemed very small as he waited on the magicat. She smiled wanly at Catra as she passed on her way to the room down the hall.

“You know I always have time for my favourite kitten.” Her words were happy but her tone was heavy as she moved away.

“C’mon ghoul, let's talk somewhere where there aren’t kids to hear.” She had made her peace with him long ago, but they weren’t what could be called friends.

She led him down the back stairs, keeping him away from the children. These stairs led down through the kitchens and out to the street. She knew he would have come in that way. Many of the children who had started their lives in the Horde still found seeing their former dictator traumatising. The first time, after they let him roam free, that a child had run screaming from him on the street Hordak had decided that the less he came to town the better. It was why he and Entrapta lived far away in the Spire. The less people had to look at him the better.

They walked in tense silence. Everything about Catra felt tense for the last twenty-four hours. The only time she didn’t feel like a clenched fist was when she was with her daughter. The further she got from her child, the more the frustrated rage bloomed inside her. It was feeling that she had hoped that she had left behind in her teens. It was something else to hate the princesses for. They walk quickly and ended at the bar, at this time of day they would just be setting up and the two of them could go to a table and talk candidly without interruption.

Looking across the table at the man partially responsible for ruining her life, Shadow Weaver still held top spot of her life ruiners but this man had given her the job, she couldn’t help but marvel at the change in his appearance. They had taken away his exosuit when they had arrested him and broken it down for parts. Entrapta had been incensed and it wasn’t often you saw that but he had taken it as part of his punishment. She knew that now he saw it as essential to his rehabilitation. Magicat medicine and medical equipment had gone a long way to healing his body and he was now just a very tall man with some very odd physical quirks. He didn’t look almost as frightening as he used to. 

“Say what you have to say, old man.” Her words were curt, she had little time for pleasantries.

“We both know that this is my fault, Catra. They saw me and then we were attacked. They want me.” His deep, melodious voice was full of mourning and self hatred. “Hand me over to them. It will keep this place safe. It seems only fitting that I should be your sacrifice.”

“When they first got here they were baying for my blood, Hordak. If we hand you over now, they’ll just come back in a month or a year and demand me and then somebody else, and somebody else. Nobody is martyring themselves for this place, you old fool. Nobody else dies or gets thrown in a cell to rot.” Once she had thought he should but Entrapta would never forgive her and Stanley deserved his father.

“Then how are we to prevent a war? They are easier to start than to finish, Catra. I should know.” The shame in his voice was a long way from his superciliousness from years passed.

“For starters, I am pretty certain that what happened on the Halfmoon was done without the orders of the Alliance. That was a fishing expedition. Sparkles is desperate to take me down and saw an opportunity. We wait for them to make contact and then we force them to sign a peace accord with us. We show them good faith they do the same.” It stung, that she would have to be the bigger person. She was no politician but as the Chief it was up to her to make sure that the magicat’s never suffered what she had suffered.

Hordak and the magicats had a history, or somebody who looked like him at least. When Tace had first seen Hordak when he was arrested she had gone berserk, lashing out at him and if he hadn’t still been in the exosuit, she would have gutted him. Catra had been forced to grab her around the waist and pull her off of him. Hordak still sported a faint scar on his chin from her attack. It had taken wheedling to get answers from either of them. Tace had volunteered it freely and later, Hordak had filled in the gaps.

Hordak’s maker, or brother? Catra wasn’t sure of the mechanics, was the leader of a galactic version of the Horde, that revelation had made her skin crawl. It was that monster that her people had been running from, him and his threat to destroy their world if they did not captivate to them. It was what Hordak had been trying to emulate here. He had found himself stranded in a strange place and endeavoured to make it what he was familiar with. It was an experiment that he could see had failed early on but habit and obsession had been what had kept him going and going until a purple haired variable had shaken him out of his malaise.

Over time, Hordak had shown himself to be an asset to them all. Working tirelessly on converting equipment from the Fright Zone and the Halfmoon to be useful to Oasis. He had been the one to build their solar vehicles. Hordak was a man making amends for himself and the man one he looked like. Catra wasn’t going to let him throw that away. 

“Look,” she leaned towards him, “I’m gonna need you to come with us when we inevitably go to Brightmoon. You are going to be yourself, no going back to that act that we all grew up with. You’re going to be the husband, the father and the mechanic that you are NOT the warlord they think you are. Do you understand me.”

Hordak looked up at her with his red eyes as soft as she had ever seen them. It wasn’t an expression she had ever had directed at her, she was more used to murderous glee as he tried to kill her, but it was a look he directed at his family. She hoped it meant he understood that she would protect him as she would protect anyone here.

“I understand. You are a good woman Catra. I am sorry I didn’t nurture you better when you were a child. Who know what you could have been.”

“Good job you didn’t, or we’d still be living in a war zone and hating ourselves.” He nodded in agreement as Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle came from the back room to join them at the table. It should have seemed odd to her to see this group clustered around the table, Hordak should have looked out of place, but with Rogelio sat at his side, Lonnie at one end of the table and Kyle at the other. They all understood.

Nobody would be taking the fall for somebody else’s crimes this time. 

__________________

Catra hadn’t returned home after meeting with Hordak. She had left him talking with the others and made her way back to her own office. She needed to be alone, or as alone as she could be in Oasis. She loved the place and she liked that she was loved, but she was responsible for so much that it was hard sometimes to get a moment to herself. She walked through the bullpen and to her office, nodding greeting to the serious faced men and women she passed. It was usually a jolly place but today it was almost silent. She entered her office and was careful to turn the lock behind her. She was here to take moment, not deal with problems.

She threw herself into her office chair, hearing it whine in protest at the harsh treatment. She let out a little growl. It was hard to be the one staying measured in all of this when all she wanted to do was scream and punch and tear. Glimmer had been lucky to leave this place with her throat in tact. She didn’t know where that level of self restraint had come from, or maybe it was just an old sense of self preservation that she was hardwired with. Adora’s voice ringing out in that space telling her to stop had taken her back to a very dark place, or being punished for nothing and being told if only she did better it wouldn’t happen again. If she’d just stop and think, be less disrespectful things would change. When she’d try and things would just be the same. Why could Adora never see that it wasn’t her fault?

She growled again and banged her fist on the desk hard enough to make one of the drawers open a little. She sighed and pulled the drawer out more, pulling out the small screen that she kept there. It was a book sized tablet that had much of the history of the magicats’ uploaded onto it. She had poured over every bit of information she could get about her people over the last decade and it had filled an empty part of her that she hadn’t known was there. Meeting with Hordak had forced her mind back to the reason why her people had been hurtling through space when they had been caught in a spacial anomaly and flung to Etheria.

She flicked the device on and watched the screen come to life in front of her. She pressed a few keys and was taken to the logs. She tapped the thumbnail of a portly magicat, a historian she had come to learn, who had been recording all she could about their home-world. In this particular recording, looking harried and dishevelled she told the watcher…

“We have been aware of a force approaching for some time. They started at the edge of our galaxy, we received distress call too late to be of service. Planet after planet went quiet. Old allies were gone. We began to build three arks. Our leaders had always wanted to explore the far flung reaches of the universe, who knew their hubris would be our salvation?

The arks were already half built, languishing in hangers on an abandoned island, victims of budget cuts and a lack of passion. It has been eight months and they are almost complete; the Fullmoon, the Halfmoon and the Quartermoon. They will carry tens of thousands of our people out into the stars to find a new world far from this danger. Many of us will be left behind but at least there will be hope. 

We have received transmissions from the Galactic Horde. Threats of destruction if we refuse to capitulate to the will of their leader, a totalitarian dictator known as Prime. In all the data we have been able to gain from other planets in his path, it won’t matter if we surrender or not. He will take what he wants from us and wipe us from the face of history. We will be lucky if the planet itself survives his arrival. By all accounts he has a weapon that can blow a planet to smithereens. 

Some wish to fight, to use our fleet to preemptively take the fight to Prime. It is a foolish desire. We have limited ships and our armoury is sparse at best. Perhaps we have let ourselves forget our warrior ways too much. Though I do not think even our ancestors would have stood a chance against a creature so avaricious and cruel.

The Horde will be upon us within weeks. The ships are to be filled with as many of us as can fit. Some of our elders wanted them to be filled with only the ‘best and brightest’ of our kind. Cooler heads prevailed. Who is to say who is the best when talking about magicat life? We performed a lottery based on our census. Thirty-thousand assorted member of our species will shoot into the night. Thirty-thousand chances for our future. Our only hope that they will outrun Prime and disappear into deep space. Found a new home for us.

I am not one of the chosen, though I have been privilege to put together our history for the future generations of you who will be born on alien soil. You ARE the best of us. You are all of us.”

…Catra turned off the recording. Prime. It terrified her to think that out there, somewhere, was a creature of such evil that he could turn worlds to dust and erase whole civilisations. From what she had learned from readouts on the bridge they weren’t in what the instruments considered space anymore. She hoped it meant they were tucked away safely away from this tyrant. 

It was something to thank the First Ones for, it seemed.

The Fullmoon and the Quartermoon hadn’t been so lucky as to be pulled out of space, she hoped that they had found a safe place. It was a pretty wish, that out there, a thousand years ago, one of those ships had found a safe haven and called to its sisters in the night, had mourned the loss of the Halfmoon, and then set to work making a home. That a thousand years had passed in sweat and told and that the great, great, great, great…thirty times great grandchildren of those survivors were prolific, free and happy.

Because the alternative? That was unthinkable. Them dying in the cold dark of space, chased down like prey and obliterated, was horrifying. And then, that the lucky one, the Halfmoon, had been unlucky enough to fall victim to another Horde a thousand years later was something like a cosmic joke.

They were all victims here.

____________

“Am I a bad person?” The woman’s words were slurred as she lounged across the bar in an inebriated puddle.

The bartender opened his mouth to say something, then quickly shutting it again, lost for words. They were good at listening, sure. When she had run her own bar in a skull in the middle of teh desert, all the reprobates had told her their secrets and bragged about their conquests. Here, where people wanted to talk about things that mattered and get some sort of comfort? She was ill equipped. The horned woman opened her mouth to try again when she saw Lonnie walking towards them from the floor. She caught the bosses eye and tilted her head towards the drunk woman. Lonnie nodded and ushered her away.

Getting closer to Scorpia, Lonnie could smell how much she had drunk already, without needing to smell her breath. The night was still young, the scorpioni must had arrived when they opened and been drinking steadily for the last couple of hours. She reached out and rested a gentle hand on her friends back and moved it in circles. It told her how drunk the big woman was that she didn’t react to being touched.

Kyle’s first set was just finishing, and as he said his thank yous to the crowd she caught his eye. He knew at once that she wanted him to get Rogelio. They had been together for almost thirsty years, the three of them knew each others needs without words. She watched him bounce down the stairs of the stage, giving Scorpia a concerned look as he ducked into the kitchen. Rogelio couldn’t drop everything straight away, so Lonnie sat down beside the white haired woman whose head was now resting on the bar, cheek smooshed as she looked dopily at Lonnie.

“Hi, Scorpia. How you doing there?” It was a stupid question. She was clearly doing very poorly. They all were, but the princesses betrayal had touched Scorpia more than most. The flower princess may not have come on the raid, but she had obviously known. If they all felt hurt by Adora’s actions, she couldn’t imagine how Scorpia was feeling about Perfuma.

“Am I bad, Lonnie?” Her voice was shockingly clear for how bloodshot her eyes were. Perhaps that was more from tears than alcohol.

“Oh, Scorpia…You are the very best of us all. You’re sweet and kind and you never let anything break your spirit. I only wish I could be as good as you.” It was true. During the war, Lonnie hadn’t always been kind to the big bug. She’d found her infantile and foolish, and may have had a tiny crush on her, and had lashed out with displaced anger. As a grown woman she appreciated the very parts of Scorpia that used to grate.

“Then why does nobody ever love me back?” There was a quaver in her voice now and those red eyes were getting glazed.

“We all love you.” A new voice joined them, Kyle sitting on Scorpia’s other side. He looked over her slumped back and mouthed to Lonnie that Rogelio would be a little while. 

“Everybody loves me… I’m sooo loveable…” She was clearly entering the loopy part of drunk, sitting up sloppily and waving her giant claws around wildly. Both Lonnie and Kyle found themselves having to dodge a concussion. “But nobody is ever IN love with Scorpia. Nope. No love for me.”

“You know that’s not true…”. Kyle was cut off by a pincer against his lip and a spittle filled ‘shush’.

“Catra didn’t love me. I loved and loved and loved. There were smooches and no love. Then Perfuma…”Now she was sobbing and her words were hard to make out. “Pretty, perfect Perfuma. I love her so much and I thought she loved me. She’d look at me with these eyes and I thought, oh, this is what love is, you know?” She didn’t wait for a response, she was on a roll. “Then she was in my room, telling me she had to end it because she was needed in Plumeria. And she cried. And we were done… And she KNEW.” The end of ‘knew’ choked into sobs.

Scorpia's wounds were fresh. Days ago she had been a woman in love and now she had to deal with betrayal and deception. So Perfuma hadn’t broken into their home to raid their secrets. She had to have known. She could have warned them. Warned Scorpia. Instead she chose to lie. Kyle didn’t think he’d ever be able to forgive the woman for doing this to his friend.

Finally Rogelio was coming out of the kitchen and without preamble he scooped the giant woman into his arms as though she weighed no more than a child and headed straight for their apartment. He had no need to look back, he knew his spouses would follow. The kitchen could live without him tonight, he had more important things to do.

__________

Darkness surrounded her as she curled into a ball in the space where the sleep chamber met the cradle it sat on. Her back was against the wall, her forehead against the cool metal of the pod. Her arms and tail were coiled around herself as she purred forlornly. It was a mournful sound, reverberating around the room like a dirge. She didn’t rock or move at all, just sat still, in the dark, among the dead.

It wasn’t the first time that she had come here to mourn. In the wake of Tace’s death, she had come here often. It had been important to her not to show too much of her heartbreak to her young daughter. Yarsha had been only a year old when they lost the third point in their family triangle, old enough to miss the black magicat but not old enough to understand that she was gone. Catra had spent sleepless nights rocking a very upset baby. She had missed her Zu’s scent, the feel her warmth and the touch of her fur. To a baby magicat, sensation was everything and although she had remained a happy little thing, perhaps crying a little more in the day than usual but mostly fine, the nights had been another matter. The nights had been filled with tears and gut wrenching sobs that left the tiny body gasping and almost inconsolable. 

Catra had spent those nights with her daughter wrapped in one of Tace’s shirts, cradled in her arms, singing and rocking her. She hadn’t slept much in those days. Not because of the inconsolable infant, but because of the dreams that plagued her. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw death. It was easier not to sleep at all.

It was when exhaustion had beaten her that she would retreat to the belly of the ship. Yarsha would be left in Lonnie’s capable hands, and she would sneak off to be alone. Only ever in the day, she never left Yarsha alone at night, it was something she promised herself even before Tace’s passing, and always able to be contacted. There was a strange kind of comfort in the cool darkness, surrounded by the dead. Tace may not be here, but others were.

It had taken some time for her even to consider the idea of finding her parents in the pod room, let alone look at who they were on the manifest. She had never had parents before. It wasn’t a concept that she had ever thought about, even as a child in the Horde. When other young cadets would dreamily talk about the possible parents that they may have had, who had selflessly given them up for the lie of a ‘greater good’, Catra had always known it was hog-wash. All adults brought was pain and loathing. If she had been born (Shadow Weaver enjoyed telling her that she was just a cosmic mistake, hatched from the air just to test her) then they had seen what a mistake she was and thrown her away.

Tace had been puzzled by her lack of curiosity, though she had not voiced it at the start. She had known Catra’s parents well and hoped eventually the other girl would ask. She had assumed it was trauma keeping her from investigating, or simply how focused she was on resettling the magicats and freeing the Horde. In the weeks after the Horde dissolved and their community tripled, talk of finding families and looking for the survivors of raids from the young men, women and children around them had. It had finally been the thing to make the taller woman push.

She had found Catra napping in the bottom of a set of foundations that she had been digging. When they had discovered the prefabricated buildings that filled almost half of the giant ship, Catra had become almost possessed with the idea of making homes for everyone. Other pitched in, of course, but none with the zeal and tireless dedication that Catra showed. The building site had been deserted when Tace found her, covered in sand and curled in the warm sand, the others having gone on a well deserved break. She had jumped down into the deep pit, crouching beside the frustratingly perfect girl and running her hand through filthy hair. Catra had stirred and looked up at her with big, befuddled eyes. For a moment she had looked just like that toddler Tace used to take out to play and the question had just blurted out.

“Catra, why haven’t you found your parents?” All of the other young magicat’s had located their parents pods and done their own private mourning, most had also downloaded their family details from the computer. The youngest children would find their parents when they were ready.

Big, confused eyes blinked several times as though she were trying to focus on Tace’s face. She had fallen asleep exhausted and been woken up unexpectedly and hit with a question, it was no wonder she was confused. Tace had smiled at her and stroked her ears gently until the other woman got her wits back and sat up, yawning and stretching expansively. It had caused her cropped shirt ride up even higher and showed off all the muscles in her arms, shoulder and abdomen. Tace’s blush may be hidden by her dark fur but the frantic swishing of her tail gave her away and caused Catra to let out a throaty little laugh.

“Why haven’t I what?” As she spoke her hands had reached out to gently tug Tace’s tale.

“I just… I was looking at you all cute and I wondered why you hadn’t found your parents.” She kept her expression soft, knowing how easily spooked Catra could be.

“I guess it never occurred to me?” Catra’s voice was neutral as she spoke in a way it seldom was and Tace tilted her head in bemusement. “I never wondered if I had parents or if somebody loved me, Tace. I spent all my life being told I was garbage and treated accordingly. The only dreams I had, were of a day left alone and taking over the world. It wasn’t a healthy environment. I guess I still didn’t really think about parents.”

“It wasn’t all your life, you know, until we left you were loved so, so much. And you are now.” Tace leaned forward to press a tender kiss to her lips that was happily returned. “Would you like to find them?”

“I guess, I can’t see what difference it will make to me, but if you come with me it can’t hurt, right?”

Two days later they had been in the belly of the Halfmoon. Tace had become well versed in the computer system and was quickly able to find Catra’s parents. Looking at the pictures of their smiling faces had made her chest tighten, they had been nice, kind people. She looked over at Catra who was staring at the screen with no recognition on her face and Tace’s sadness grew. She reached out and took one of the shorter girls hands and squeezed. Mismatched eyes turned to her.

“Do you recognise them at all?” Tace’s voice was almost a whisper in this sacred place.

“No.” She ruefully shook her head. “I don’t know what I expected. I was really little and there’s been a lot of water under this broken bridge.” Tace hated it when Catra would call herself broken. It downplayed what she had been through and overcome, but now wasn’t the time for an argument about self esteem.

“Would you like me to tell you about them before we find them?” The monitor just showed the facts, floor plan of where their pods were, names, ages and function in the crew.

“Yeah.” It was an effort to admit to her desires for a past, but with Tace it was easier. She was starting to learn that she could be soft, vulnerable, and that it wouldn’t be thrown in her face. She moved closer, dropping the black cat’s hand and instead resting her head on her shoulder as they stood side by side.

That was how she had learnt about her parents, Tzali and Dhi. They had been mated for many years, both males dedicated to their work before they adopted a tiny kitten whose mother had died in birth and whose father was unknown, and then just as dedicated to her. The fact that they had picked her had made Catra’s heart swell. Very few people had ever picked her before. It was overwhelming to know that she had been what they had wanted. Their smiling pictures had almost made her cry. Looking at them in their pods, mummified and forever frozen but at least side-by-side, had made her sob into Tace’s shoulder.

Years later she would come here after the death of her own mate and allow herself to grieve with the parents that she didn’t remember but felt connected to. Now, she grieved for another young woman; grieved for the possibility of reconnecting with somebody who she had once believed would choose her. She castigated herself, she should have known better. Adora had never really chosen her. She was a convenient, attentive friend for the blond. But she had chosen to obey Shadow Weaver unquestioningly, had chosen the rebellion and now she had chosen to betray not just Catra but an entire group of people who had only treated her with kindness over the last six months. She had hoped, that fickle thing that still lived in her, that maybe she and Adora could grow close again. Not out of an impossible dream of some romantic entanglement (she had been lucky enough to have her great love, after all), but because the blond was so damn likeable.

Purrs stuttering to a stop, she sighed into the darkness as she heard a familiar gait making its way towards her. She didn’t move from her spot, just tensed a little. The rhythmic, heavy footfalls and the drag of a tail got closer and closer until the person folded themself down in the space beside her, careful not to touch any of the pods. This was not a place for him. But he knew she shouldn’t be left alone.

Rogelio didn’t make a sound as he sat in the dark. Catra was grateful. She leaned into him as he began to make a deep humming sound, that she joined with her purr, both lamenting a girl they used to know who had abandoned them again.  
______________ 

Seated around the large table in a semi circle, the council were in clear view of the monitor, the incoming transmission signal beeping ominously. They had been waiting for this call for the three days since the Alliance had been cast out of Oasis. Catra sat in the far corner of the room, still in view of the monitor but pointedly showing that she was involved but not a leader of this place. What she was, however, was the chief of the magicats and as such was representing them.

It was Huntara who opened the connection. Queen Angella’s face sprang to life on the screen. Her pale skin and light pink hair almost luminous. Her troubled expression was easy to read, she was as scared of a conflict with them as they were. It was reassuring to see that she was not carrying the anger and animosity that they had seen in her daughters face each time she had entered their home.

“Queen Angella.” Huntara spoke first, taking charge with her strong, no nonsense tone. “I trust that you have been made aware of the terrible breach of our trust that has happened here?”

“Yes,” Angella’s tone was weary. “I wish to apologise unreservedly for the actions oof my people. I assure you that the incursion was in no way sanctioned by the Alliance. I have spoken at length with the perpetrators of the incident. I believe I have a full picture of events, though I would appreciate hearing your views.”

“That’s all very nice for your, but your people led an invasion into our territory, using an access device we provided in good faith. They breached a sacred area that we had told you we would consider them seeing in time. We have been doing everything we can to build a link with you, opening our home to your people and treating them like our own. What possible provocation could there be to justify these actions?”

Angella sat straighter in her seat, embarrassment and shame on her face. “I agree that their actions were rash. Like you, I do not wish to start another conflict. I am sick of war.” There was a sound of agreement from the Oasis delegation.

“We had no intention of starting a war, Queen Angella. All we have been doing for a decade is building a place where we can all live in peace. But we cannot just stand by while hostile forces come to destroy us.”

“No. You cannot. I would not expect you to. Princess Glimmer is under arrest for her actions. I offer safe passage to Brightmoon for a delegation of Oasis representatives. We will work on a binding peace treaty.” Angella’s voice held the authority of decades of rule, and they believed that the guaranteed safety would be just that. There was no reason to disbelieve it.

“We will consider your proposition and give your our answer.” Huntara did not wait for a further response and ended the transmission, sitting back and looking around the table at her peers. In turn they all turned to meet Catra’s glowering face. She stood and joined them at the table, perching on its surface with one hip.

“So, Wildcat, looks like your plan is what we’re going with.” Scorpia’s tone was sad and contrite.

“They want a delegation of the leaders of this place, I told you that they would. I fought these people for years, I know how they think. I may not be on the council but I am chief of my people.” She worried her lip with a snap tooth. “They’ll want me there anyway, and Hordak. Queen Angella may say she is on our side, but you know she wants to believe her daughter. The only way to clear this up without a fight is if we give them what we know they want. They want to talk, they want to interrogate me and Hordak and they want somebody to blame for all this that isn’t them.”

“How could they possibly turn this around on us?” Double Trouble was a gifted manipulator, but even he found that a stretch.

“If we aren’t there they will. Trust me. We all need saving from the ‘good’ people.” They would let Queen Angella know their answer the following day. 

It was time to get their delegation together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Off to Brightmoon we go?


End file.
